Ciments Calcia abandons a contested project in Île-de-France and provides for the elimination of 162 jobs

Cement manufacturer Calcia has announced its intention to cut 162 jobs as part of a vast reorganization plan that includes the abandonment of a disputed quarry project in the Vexin park, north-west of Paris.

This reorganization project, which still has to be validated by the staff representatives, "would lead to the elimination of 162 posts and the creation of 20 other posts", Ciments Calcia said in a press release.

The group plans to invest 400 million euros in parallel "on four of its main CO2 emitting sites", including nearly 300 million euros on the Airvault site (Deux-Sèvres) alone.

In detail, the group, a subsidiary of the German giant Heidelberg Cement, will convert its Gargenville (Yvelines) factory into "grinding center", result of "context of uncertainty linked to the numerous appeals" filed against the opening of a new career.

"Our limestone source from the current quarry is at the end of its operating period, we cannot maintain a factory without limestone", the spokesperson for the group told AFP.

This new quarry project, which was to make it possible to continue supplying 15% of the construction companies building the Greater Paris area, had been declared "project of general interest" in 2016.

However, it was strongly contested by local elected officials and associations, the latter denouncing a nibbling of arable land in the heart of the regional natural park (PNR) of Vexin.

"This reorientation of activities, called for with our wishes and those of thousands of inhabitants of Mantois, will avoid all the damage that this bad project would have caused for public health and the environment", greeted the Vice-President of the Departmental Council Cécile Dumoulin and the deputy of Yvelines Michel Vialay in a joint press release.

Another announcement made by Ciments Calcia as part of its reorganization, the cessation of the production of white cement at the Cruas site (Ardèche), "the result of which is structurally negative".

The site would be transformed "into an automated cement terminal for the distribution of white cement", specifies the group, which is also planning a reorganization of its head office in Guerville.

The German group Heidelberg Cement employs 3.500 people in France, including around 1.300 people for the Calcia Ciments part.