Question 17990 — industry

Summary

Mr. Jérôme Buisson draws the attention of the Minister Delegate to the Minister of the Economy, Finance and Industrial, Energy and Digital Sovereignty, responsible for industry, to the extremely worrying situation of the French and European silicon metal industry and to the risks weighing on the sustainability of Ferroglobe France's activities. Ferroglobe, the leading European producer of silicon metal, has several industrial sites in France, notably in Anglefort, in Ain, as well as in Savoie and Isère. The sustainability of these production capacities is today seriously threatened by the persistent deterioration of the European silicon metal market. In a letter sent on August 6, 2026 to the MP, Ferroglobe France reported a market still characterized by a situation of overcapacity and prices remaining at a particularly high level. down. Although demand for silicon has stabilized, the continued increase in supply from Angola is putting lasting pressure on the European market and preventing any significant recovery in prices. The company also warns of the substitution effects between silicon metal and ferro-silicon, which risk circumventing European safeguard measures adopted in November 2025 for certain ferro-alloys. This The situation is particularly worrying for French and European industry, which must support structurally high production costs while being confronted with imports whose competitive conditions are denounced by the sector as unfair. In this context, several European production capacities have been stopped or significantly reduced, while employees in the sector are faced with periods of partial unemployment and strong uncertainty about the future of their activity. However, silicon metal is of major strategic importance. It is explicitly listed by the European regulation on critical raw materials among strategic and critical raw materials. It constitutes in particular an essential input for the production of aluminum and silicones as well as for the value chains linked to semiconductors and photovoltaics. The preservation of European production capacity thus constitutes a direct issue of industrial sovereignty and autonomy. The sector has taken several steps with the European Commission. A request for an interim review of the anti-dumping measures applicable to imports of silicon from the People's Republic of China was filed on July 8, 2026 by Euroalloys on behalf of the Union industry. The European Commission finally officially opened this review on September 1, 2026, with a view to examining both the existence of dumping and the injury suffered by the European industry. This opening constitutes a first step forward, but it cannot be enough to respond to the urgency of the situation. The MP remains particularly worried and concerned by the slowness of the procedures European countries, even though the deterioration of the market and the reduction in production capacity are immediate. The time required for the procedure to be completed must not lead to the disappearance of industrial capacities that any trade defense measures would specifically be intended to preserve. The silicon metal situation also requires particular vigilance regarding the evolution of imports from Angola. In its letter of August 6, 2026, Ferroglobe indicated that DG Trade then recommended moving towards the opening of an anti-dumping procedure and that the complaint should be submitted soon. It therefore appears necessary for the French authorities to monitor this development with the greatest attention and ensure that any unfair commercial practice likely to further weaken European industry is subject to rapid and rigorous scrutiny. The MP therefore asks the Minister what concrete steps the Government intends to take with the European Commission so that the anti-dumping review now open concerning imports of Chinese silicon is carried out as soon as possible and can lead, if the conditions provided for by European law are met, to measures truly effective commercial defense measures. He asks in particular whether the Government intends to support with the European Commission the rapid implementation of the various instruments provided for by Union law, in particular the registration of imports, the adoption of provisional measures and, when the legal conditions are met, the retroactive application of duties, in order to prevent the worsening of the damage suffered by the European producers during the duration of the procedure render future measures insufficient. He also questions him on the steps that the Government intends to take regarding imports of silicon from Angola, in order to quickly determine whether these are likely to involve dumping practices or subsidies detrimental to European industry. Finally, the MP asks the Minister what measures the Government intends to take to preserve French silicon metal production capacities, and in particular the activity and jobs at the Ferroglobe site in Anglefort, in Ain, and to guarantee that France and the European Union can maintain industrial capacity in a sector recognized as strategic and critical. He therefore wishes to know the Government's commitments so that the defense of this sector strategic industrial sector is not solely dependent on the timetable of European procedures, but is the subject of political mobilization commensurate with the challenges of industrial sovereignty, employment and strategic autonomy.

Machine translation from French. The official text remains authoritative.

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