French chem industry losing €10m/day in strikes – official

LONDON (ICIS)–France’s chemical industry may be losing €10m/day from the blocking of refineries and fuel depots throughout the country, a senior industry official said in an interview with French state media on Wednesday.

Striking workers are blocking the sites in a dispute over labour law reforms.

Jean Pelin, director general of chemical industry trade group l’Union des industries chimiques (UIC), said that the loss of €10m/day, since early this week, was an estimate based on the number of sites blocked or where production was reduced.

Meanwhile, French prime minister Manuel Valls announced in parliament on Wednesday that authorities were moving to unblock the sites.

Jean-Jacques Urvoas, France’s minister of justice, added that regional French authorities have the legal power to unblock the refineries and depots if they see a danger to the public order.

On Tuesday, police already removed striking workers who blocked an ExxonMobil refinery in southern France, and on Wednesday French state media reported that police unblocked a fuel depot in Douchy-les-Mines, near Lille in northern France.

UIC’s Pelin stressed that the chemical industry was directly impacted as the refineries supply raw materials to chemical producers.

He indicated that without intervention, the cost to the chemical industry could rise to an estimated €30m/day by the end of the week.

In related news, a spokesman for French energy and petrochemicals major Total confirmed remarks by the company’s CEO, Patrick Pouyanne, that the blockages could prompt Total to revise its investment plans for France. Pouyanne in particular mentioned planned investments for the Donges refinery in western France.