FRANCE: Government pledges support for Airbus suppliers

France, worried about the impact of the Airbus crisis on its high-tech industries, said on Monday (October 16) 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. "... we are going to mobilize to the maximum the capacity of companies in the field of the treasury to help them to pass over difficult steps. We are going to mobilize at the same time the employment services to see how it will work if a difficult period took place in 2007 or probably begining of 2008, and how we can restart later a very strong activities in term that emlpoyees feel protected," said Dominique Perben. 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. 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 southwestern French city, industry estimates say. The industry has so far not provided figures on the overall financial impact of the A380 delays, although analysts say the cashflow and working capital requirements of those involved in making primary structural components are most under pressure. Fuselage and cables maker Latecoere has said the A380 problems will slice 10 percent from its 2007 revenue. Suppliers said the impact of the A380 delays varied widely from company to company, depending on the type of parts they make and their exposure to other Airbus programmes or rival planemakers like Boeing and Brazil's Embraer. Overall Airbus deliveries are rising sharply this year and next on the back of a recent boom in single-aisle jet sales. Airbus says it has more than 200 significant supply contracts with around 120 suppliers for the mammoth A380.

ITN Source | October 17, 2006

Tags:. .primary. .pressure. .germany. .equipment. .transport