On November 23, on the occasion of the preview screening of the documentary “The factory ; the good, the bad and the ugly”* dedicated to the fight of three former employees of the UPM Chapelle Darblay factory Grand Couronne (near Rouen, in France) to relaunch this paper mill, an update was made on the future of this site purchased in May 2022 by the Veolia/Fibre Excellence consortium. Eighteen months later, the project remains on hold. Veolia has decided to no longer invest €27 million in it and is preparing to sell the land to Fiber Excellence. The group has, however, committed to supplying the paper maker with recovered paper & board for a period of seven years. An agreement between the two parties is expected on December 15. For their part, Nicolas Meyer-Rossignol, mayor of Rouen and president of the Rouen Metropolis, as well as Sophie Binet, general secretary of the CGT, called on the State to secure financing for the project. Relaunching this site to produce Corrugated Case material (CCM) would require some €270 million, Fiber Excellence having for its part confirmed an investment of €30 million. Since mid-October, two round tables have been organized at the French Ministry of Industry.
V. L.
(*) This documentary, lasting one hour and 15 minutes, will be released next January 3.
Sources: France Bleu Normandie, actu.fr and BFM Normandie.
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