• Production
• Research & Development
• Contacts

Europe’s no. 3 automobile region
No. 2 in France

• A dense network of carmakers operating at 4 production sites (2x Renault, Toyota and PSA Peugeot/Citroën/Fiat)
• 150 equipment suppliers

2005

• Vehicle output : one million units, 30 % of total French production
• Gearboxes : 1,7 million
• Car engines : 1,9 million
• Total employees : 55,000 (including 23,000 on manufacturers’ sites)

Carmakers

RENAULT Douai   6,000 workers   418,139 vehicles   Mégane Berline, Coupé Cabriolet, Scenic and Grand Scenic	MCA (RENAULT Maubeuge)   3,000 workers   218,770 vehicles   Kangoo VP and VU, Nissan Kubistar
SEVELNORD (PSA Peugeot/Citoën/Fiat)   4,000 workers   151,000 vehicles   C8, 807 Phedra, Ulysse, Jumpy, Expert, Scudo	Toyota http://www.toyota-valenciennes.com   3,200 workers   182,789 vehicles + 200 engines   Yaris + yaris verso
PSA Peugeot Citroën Site de Valenciennes   2,200 workers   1.4 million gearboxes	Française de Mécanique   4,400 workers   1.8 million engines
STA Ruitz   900 workers   Production of over 110,000 gearboxes

Within easy reach of most of Europe’s largest car assembly plants - France’s no. 2 region for car manufacturing and a prime contender in Europe

• An increasingly integrated global market has forced the world’s industries to reexamine their needs. For auto-component manufacturers, Northern France is the region of choice, offering direct links to markets throughout Europe by sea, road, waterway, rail and air.
• European carmakers’ decision-making centers in Paris, London, Brussels, Antwerp, The Hague, Cologne and Luxembourg are all within 300 kilometers of Lille. -* Today nearly two-thirds of all European carmakers and a host of OEMs have operations within 500 kilometers of Lille. And 10 million private and utility vehicles-over 80% of all Western Europe production-are made within 700 kilometers.
• But Northern France does more than serve Europe’s leading carmakers. Today the automotive industry is a key regional activity, with over 1 million vehicles produced in 2004 - 30% of total French production.

Carmaking in France

France is a leading auto producer and one of the main automotive markets in Europe. French carmakers produced 3.6 million vehicles in 2005-a full 21 % of production in Europe, ranking France 5th worldwide behind the USA, Japan, Germany and China.

With 36 million vehicles registered in 2005 (30 million cars altogether, plus 6 million trucks and utility vehicles), France is also Europe’s third largest automobile market. New passenger car registrations in 2005 totaled approximatively 2.5 million.

Production

Automotive components

Northern France, Belgium and Kent (UK) have joined forces in a single Euro-region offering a comprehensive range of materials and parts providers, plus support services especially for component suppliers.
There are currently more than 150 Tier I, II and III suppliers in Northern France. Both international and French companies are on hand with cost-effective solutions to carmakers needs:

Skilled Manpower

With about 1.4 million jobs, Northern France has the fourth largest workforce of any region in France. Altogether 225,518 of these are in industry, placing us third nationwide behind Greater Paris (526,462 jobs) and Rhone-Alpes (426,699).

New sectors have emerged since the end of the 1960s, when traditional coal-mining, steel, and shipbuilding gave way to car-making (55,000 jobs today) and plastics technology (18,000 jobs).

If the Bridgestone factory in Béthune has succeeded in resisting the siren songs of delocalisation to Slovenia or the Czech Republic up to now, it is because its General Manager, Bruno Capron, believes in the economic and industrial potential of the Nord - Pas de Calais.
As he emphasises, the innovation demonstrated by the employees of the site in Béthune shows that "a factory is not only made up of its machines but also its men and its environment". And it is this very spirit of innovation, backed up with much sacrifice (as Christian Larivière made clear in his article dated 25 April 2004 in La Voix du Nord: "Men who have gritted their teeth and tightened their belts in order to improve the performance of their fathers, most of whom were recruited from the mines. From a five-day week they moved to a six-day week, then to three shifts seven days a week without a social tidal wave. They have agreed to have their salaries frozen for two years."), that has now enabled the Béthune factory to break into the high quality and top of the range tyre markets.
In addition, Bruno Capron highlights a major advantage of the Nord - Pas de Calais region: its strategic location. "When compared on an equal basis with the factories in Burgos and Bari, where the social charges are lower, our geographical situation will be a decisive advantage in saving our site until 2020 at least", he wagers. For even if salaries are four or five times lower in Poznan than in Béthune, "with Europe’s expansion toward the East this difference will be eliminated in ten our twenty years". And he concluded by stating that while "Europe is the most difficult and competitive market in the world", it is also the most profitable, and that is a good thing: the Nord - Pas de Calais is right in the middle of it.

Source: Comments made by Bruno Capron, General Manager of the Bridgestone factory, in an article dated 25 April 2004 by Christian Larivière, published in La Voix du Nord.

Competitive labor costs

French workers in manufacturing are exceptionally productive. This, combined with relatively moderate wages make France a more cost-effective place to produce auto components than other locations in Europe. 5 % below the national level.

Research & training serving the automobile industry in Northern France

Multiple options for training at all levels

Northern France offers multiple options for training and education relevant to the automobile industry, from secondary school technical diplomas to specialized higher education programs and advanced engineering degrees.

Prestigious engineering institutions in the region include:

• Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Ingénieurs de Mécanique Energétique (ENSIAME), Valenciennes
• Ecole Centrale de Lille
• Ecole des Mines de Douai
• Hautes Etudes d’Ingénieur (HEI)
• Institut Catholique des Arts et Métiers (ICAM)
• Institut Supérieur de Design

In addition to initial education and training facilities, Northern France counts a large number of organizations providing opportunities for continued education and training in skills such as sheet metal work, painting, assembly, fork-lift operation and warehouse keeping.

Not to mention continuing education through :

• VALAREP Valenciennes and FORMATECH Cambrai: steel rim work
• GRETA Valenciennes and ACM Anzin: painting
• AFPA Cantin: fitters
• IFTIM Seclin: training for forklift truck operators and storekeepers.

Research excellence from specialized institutions

In Northern France, some 20 institutions with specialized expertise in research relevant to the automobile industry employ over 1,000 people. They include -*National Research Institute on Transport and Safety (INRETS): electronics - waves and signals for transport, assessment of automated transport systems and their safety, socio-economics

• Institut d’Electronique, de Micro Electronique et de Nanotechnologie (IEMN):Telecommunications, electro-magnetic compatibility, electric, electro-magnetic, optic and acoustic characterization, obstacle detection, on-board captors and more
• Laboratory of Automation and Industrial & Human Mechanics (LAMIH):man-machine interfaces, industrial engineering and production technology, mechanical engineering
• Mechanical Engineering Laboratory of Lille (LML): fluid mechanics,reliability of materials and structures
• Laboratoire d’Automatique, Génie Informatique et Signal (LAGIS) Decision-making software, image analysis, modeling, system monitoring and command
• Office National d’Etudes et de Recherche Aérospatiales (ONERA)Mechanics of solids and damage, high-speed dynamics of structures and collisions, fluid mechanics with applications enhancing transport efficiency and safety
• Laboratoire de Mécanique Energétique (LME) Energetics, engines using low-carbon fuel , thermal aspects of braking, emission control, aero-acoustics, safety
• Ecole des Mines de Douai Environmental chemistry, industrial energetics, IT engineering and computer assisted manufacturing, mechanics of materials, quality metrics, composite polymer technology
• Laboratoire de Physico-chimie des Processus de Combustion et de l’Atmosphère Energetics and the environment, combustion, automobile engines, clean processes

R&D conducted by OEMs

• Brampton Renold : application of new materials for products developed by the company (mechanical chains, hydraulic adjusters)
• Allvard Rejna : springs and stabilizer bars in suspension assemblies
• Delfmems: RF MEMS capacitor switches for 20-94 GHz applications
• EU-AGC Automotive: complex windshield prototypes
• La Française de Mécanique: process engineering
• Mecaplast: technical center in Lens, specialized in the design of air supply for injection engines
• Pennel Automotive: polyurethane, TPO and PVC sheet and complexes
• PPG Industries France: R&D center for painting, in Marly near Valenciennes
• Valeo: alternators
• Vallourec: reinforced steel tubes
• Visteon Interior Systems: technical center in Harnes, specialized in the development and production of instrument panels (250 people)

Pooled resources for research in the service of industry

Four technology and research clusters in Northern France pool expertise and resources from institutions, industry and transport operators:

• Groupement Régional Nord-Pas de Calais pour la Recherche dans les Transports (GRRT) Economics of organization, transport and planning, logistics and goods flow control, transport safety systems, braking, materials, crash tests, biomechanics, telecoms, positioning, perception, energetics, environment, comfort, electro-magnetic compatibility. www.grrt.fr
• ST2 - Science and Technology for Transport Safety Prevention and remediation of accidents and failings, pre-crash systems, security of data transmission, human factors (errors and counter-action) safety engineering and operational reliability. www.polest2.fr
• Pôle Frein Advanced expertise and research in braking technology
• PEPSATSatellite positioning for continuing optimization of land transport systems and services. www.pepsat.fr 4