For Françoise Férat, Senator for Marne, "The French steel industry, strongly anchored in the territories, constitutes a real issue of sovereignty"
Insisting on its growth and development opportunities, she underlined the essential role of steel in French architecture before recalling the conclusions of the report led by Valérie Létard, Vice-president of the Senate "Give weapons to steel" adopted last July 9.
"There are major challenges to be met in terms of jobs, training, recognition of the architectural heritage" according to Michel Julien-Vauzelle, President of ConstruirAcier
Today, the steel industry brings together more than 175.000 jobs, has considerable training potential and offers a wide range of skills. It has some 22 sites throughout the country within a particularly dense geographic network allowing short circuits in the value chain. The sector generates 000 billion in turnover. But if training is at the heart of the professions in the sector, it suffers from a lack of attractiveness. The President of ConstruirAcier recalled that “The downstream of this steel industry and in particular the construction industry, currently supported by a correct activity in the building or even very correct in the TP, needs to be supported and reinforced by public policies. The construction industry represents 35% of the steel consumed in France ”. He finally recalled that it, an integral part of French heritage, is also part of French architectural heritage.
"Steel is at the heart of the transformation of territories" according to Bertrand Lemoine, architect DPLG
Bertrand Lemoine, DPLG architect, X-Ponts Engineer, CNRS Honorary Research Director, during his speech, swept through three centuries of history of the use of steel in construction in France. From the age of cast iron (1779-1851) to that of iron (1851-1889) until that of steel from 1889, the material demonstrates over the centuries its ability to support the most inventive and successful architectural approaches. Present in all types of structures (bridge, industrial building, residential and office building, museum, airport, station, hall, greenhouse, swimming pool, etc.), from the most modest programs to large prestigious buildings, steel is complies with the most demanding conditions of implementation. Material par excellence of rehabilitation, it puts itself fully at the service and to the aid of the architectural heritage. The use of steel in rehabilitation offers architectural freedom and a variety of exceptional forms: large spans, large convertible trays, large volumes, elevations ... The industrial heritage also offers great potential for transformation by giving it multiple solutions adaptation to meet changing needs and uses.
"Heritage, the choice of steel, the ultimate fire-fighting material" by Philippe Hostaléry, Director General of CTICM
While the reconstruction of Notre-Dame cathedral is debated, the history of French heritage monuments testifies to the choices of constructive principles operated by the designers to reconstruct the buildings damaged by serious fires. Director General of the Technical Center for Metallic Construction (CTICM), Philippe Hostaléry thus evoked the cases of the cathedral of Chartres and the replacement of its wooden frame destroyed following a serious fire, by a metal frame of cast iron and of iron and a copper roof in 1841. The cathedral of Metz, that of Reims, of Nantes in 1972, the parliament of Brittany in Rennes in 1994 are all examples illustrating the choice of steel material, durable and non-flammable, dedicated to protection buildings.
"Faced with environmental and climatic challenges, the steel industry is committed" according to Stéphane Herbin, Director of the Innovation & Communication Department of CTICM
A fully-fledged building material, steel has real assets for meeting environmental concerns and the challenges of the circular economy. For Stéphane Herbin, Director of the Innovation & Communication Department of CTICM “The industry has been involved for a long time: it wishes to give quantitative indications of its performance, provide benchmarks, support those involved in construction and show its aptitude for innovation. The constructive solutions of steel are conducive to saving resources and reusing and make it possible to combine with any other material to tackle new construction and renovation. ” . Committed to the Sector Strategic Committee "Construction industries", the sector places innovation at the heart of its priorities: digital transition and future industry, additive manufacturing, BIM, traceability and modularity thanks to prefabrication, scheduled deconstruction, prevention of waste production…
"Steel is at the heart of the needs of all French industry" according to Valérie Létard, Vice-president of the Senate and rapporteur of the fact-finding mission on the challenges of the steel industry
For Valérie Létard, the four major challenges for the future of the steel industry are:
- growing overcapacity which exacerbates competition and trade tensions;
- adapting steel producers to the requirements of the energy transition;
- the means necessary to adapt the sector which are difficult to mobilize;
- the lack of attractiveness of the sector, which poses a risk to recruitment and French know-how. Advocating the creation of a Ministry of Industry, endowed with real human and budgetary resources at the service of the French industrial fabric, the senator recalled the 30 proposals of the information mission centered around four main levers:
- support the organization of the sector and the attractiveness effort;
- to give the steel industry new weapons in global competition;
- making the steel industry a lever for decarbonizing the economy;
- establish strategic support at all levels of public policy.
At the end of the symposium, the steel construction industry raised six concerns with the Senate by proposing areas for reflection:
- How to enforce the allotment rule in public procurement?
- What means could be put in place to ensure the right balance between quality, functionality and economy of architectural projects, when the general contractor supplants project management?
- How to adapt the regulations to re-use?
- Faced with the major societal challenges to be met, how can we better manage the transformation of territories (resilience, mobility, etc.) and facilitate the concrete implementation of the renovation of existing buildings (rehabilitation, heightening, changing uses, etc.)?
- How to more easily reconcile the taking into account of fire safety and the fields of innovation opened up by the permit to innovate, introduced by the ESSOC law and in particular ordinance 2 targeting IGH?
- How to extend the consideration of environmental concerns beyond the carbon impact, by exploiting some of the 25 other indicators that comprise a life cycle analysis (use of recycled content, route of waste, components intended for recycling or reuse)?
ConstruirAcier is an association of ideas for architecture. It informs and advises architects, design offices and contracting authorities on the economic and environmental challenges raised by steel in architecture. The association relies on a solid network of experts and can intervene on all types of projects in order to transmit essential technical information, for an appropriate, efficient, economical and innovative use of the steel material.