The buyer Altifort agrees to complete his project for Ascoval

Maybe finally good news for Ascoval's employees. The Franco-Belgian group
Altifort has submitted a takeover bid for the site of Saint-Saulve (North), has committed to complete its plan on the industrial, commercial and financial, said Friday the Ministry of Economy after meetings with the main actors in the dossier.

Friday morning, employees of the steel mill in receivership had blocked Aulnoye-Aymeries, near Maubeuge, all the production inputs of the site of Vallourec, shareholder of the steel mill, to put pressure on the government.

"It's a complete blocking of the site, no one comes in. The idea is to put pressure on Vallourec while there is a meeting today (Friday ed) in Bercy" on the future of the steelworks, told AFP Nicolas Lethellier, delegate CGT Saint-Saulve. The research center, where about 150 people work, was not blocked.

133 new jobs created

The Saint-Saulve steel mill, which has 281 employees, is in danger of disappearing since the judicial liquidation in February of its largest shareholder, Asco Industries. Justice granted him Wednesday a two-week reprieve.

The Franco-Belgian group Altifort, based in the Somme, has made a "firm offer" of recovery, pledging to maintain all jobs and create 133 new, but he asks the French steelmaker Vallourec, main customer and first shareholder, to maintain for one and a half years its current level of orders.

However, Vallourec, a specialist in seamless steel tubes, of which the State is a 17% shareholder, refused at the beginning of the week this request, which it deems "contrary to the preservation (of its) interests", causing anger unions and local elected representatives, including the president of the Hauts-de-France Xavier Bertrand, strongly mobilized on this issue.

Check if the offer is serious

The Secretary of State to the Minister of Economy Agnès Pannier-Runacher, who went to the north on Tuesday, gathered all the actors of the file Friday. At the end of this day of meetings in Bercy, "Altifort will complete its business plan on industrial, commercial and financial," said in the evening the Ministry of Economy in a statement.

"It's our job to know if this offer is serious," the secretary of state told the press before the meeting. "There is a project of recovery (…) but it is a project that must be examined to be sure that the solution is sustainable," she added. "We can not go back to the employees in a year and finally say that it did not work."

The government, before making any decision on possible public support, asked for an independent opinion on Ascoval's economic situation. The firm Roland Berger, seized with this badysis, "will submit in the coming days his report," according to Bercy.