The dynamic of reindustrialisation of France was clearly slowed in 2024, according to the industrial barometer of the State, unveiled Thursday March 13, and even went into negative terrain for the first time since the creation of this indicator, in 2022, taking into account the only net balance of new factories.
This barometer, drawn up by the services of the Ministry of the Economy, identified last year 114 openings of new factories in France, while 119 factories closed, a net balance of -5 factories. If we add the significant variations of existing industrial sites (152 “significant extensions” and 58 “significant reductions”) the total balance reaches +89 sites, half less (-53 %) than in 2023.
This publication is part of an industrial sequence for the government: Prime Minister François Bayrou went to the end of the day at the bedside of manufacturers at the end of the day, at the Global Industry show in Lyon, accompanied by the Marc Ferracci and Astrid Panosyan-Bouvet work ministers. In the context of a rearmament of European countries due to a military disengagement from the United States of Ukraine, François Bayrou will defend the “industrial sovereignty” of the country there as “European” sovereignty, before visiting a TGV site from Alstom to La Rochelle on Friday, his entourage told AFP.
The suffering automobile
Among the promising sectors in 2024, we find the green industry and in particular the energy and circular economy sectors, but also health and the food industry, said Marc Ferracci. Conversely, unsurprisingly, the automobile has suffered, just like the energy -free sectors that are plastics and mechanics, according to the barometer.
“Reindustrialisation slows down, but it continues”, for the ministry. Marc Ferracci’s cabinet explains this slowdown by “a situation which remains gloomy in France, but also at European, even global level” and geopolitical instability, which “generates uncertainty” for economic actors, likely to “slow down structuring investment decisions”.
A brake stroke confirms another barometer, that of the Trendeo cabinet, for whom the net balance of job creations in the industry remained positive, but fell by more than 60 % in 2024, to 31,223 net jobs, compared to 81,637 a year earlier.
“This follows from a double movement of the development of jobs (+77 %, or 28,000 jobs removed in addition) and decrease in creations (-18 %, or 22,000 less creations),” said this study, published Tuesday. “Other indicators of the State services” provide for 2025 “a continuation of this trend” to slowdown, indicates the barometer.