The French Supply Base

The next part in our series of features on the supply bases of major European countries looking at how automotive suppliers are coping with global challenges and the local business environment.

State of the supply baseThe automotive supply industry is one of the economic sectors which have been particularly affected in Western Europe by the drop in production volumes that took place between 2008 and 2010. This is even truer for France, where the local supply base has experienced a steeper decline in turnover and of the employment levels it generates for the local economy when compared to other supply bases such as Germany and Italy. Further declines have had their impact reduced by a number of initiatives to support the national supply chain by the French government, traditionally prone to interventionism in its internal economic affairs. However this does not appear to be the silver bullet to prop up a beleaguered sector with some structural weaknesses; issues that look like they can only addressed with painful decisions. It still represents a key industry for France as it still represents about 7% of the national GDP.