France, worried about the impact of the Airbus crisis on its high-tech industries, said on Monday it wants to ensure as much production capacity as possible remains on its soil as the planemaker embarks on restructuring.
After crisis talks with a delegation of equipment suppliers, Transport Minister Dominique Perben offered political support but no new cash to help them recover from superjumbo delays.
The government will use existing measures for offering loans and finance to hard-hit companies, he told a news conference, at which he also announced a detailed study on the A380 problems. "There are criteria of cost, reliability, quality and fidelity," he said, asked whether Airbus should buy more of its parts in China or Russia to meet a 30 percent cost-cut target.
"What I would like to see is that thanks to our technology, we should be able to keep as much production capacity as possible within the eurozone and particularly in France." Two-year delays to the A380 superjumbo and a profit shortfall of 4.8 billion euros have pushed Airbus towards a restructuring expected to threaten thousands of European jobs.
French and German leaders last week called for the burden of the "Power8" restructuring plan to be shared equally, amid an outcry in Germany over unconfirmed suggestions that jobs could be transferred from Hamburg to Airbus headquarters in Toulouse. Still, French unions are bracing for a tug-of-war with Germany over jobs. Airbus indirectly suports about 50,000 jobs around the south-western French city, industry estimates say.
Comments
Comments are closed.