The French automotive supplier Faurecia (F-92641 Boulogne; www.faurecia.com) will close down the SAI Automotive AG (D-60388 Frankfurt) production plant in Sontra (D-36205 Sontra) with 461 employees by the year 2005. The plant was acquired with the purchase of SAI in October 2000, and was formerly called Lignotock. It manufactures laminated wood fibre composite board, for example for interior door panels.

Faurecia justified the measure by saying that the production lines for the VW Transporter, the VW Golf, the Mercedes SLK, the Mitsubishi Carisma and the Volvo V40 would come to a halt during the next two years. There were no follow-up orders for the installed technologies for wood fibre processing. The reason was above all that other materials and processes nowadays exist that are much more suitable for such applications.

As far as the future of the plant was concerned, various options had been “carefully examined,” said Faurecia. The possibility of shifting production lines from other sites to Sontra had been considered, as had partial closures, but, at the end of it all, complete closure was the only viable solution. In parallel with the negotiations with employee representatives concerning a social plan, the possibility is still being examined of whether “certain areas of production could be continued through the sale of parts of the company to third parties or through an MBO,” says a report.