It is a rumor that circulates between Sochaux and Montbéliard in Doubs. Stellantis would be willing to use Chinese labor for its factory. The industrialist, through a Lyon company that works for an Italian service provider, would be looking for accommodation and even a Chinese cook. Once verification is done, a company has started looking for accommodation for “individual” AND “for one year”relating to “at least one hundred Chinese employees, or even 200, between March 2025 and January 2026 for a transfer of skills to the Stellantis factories in Sochaux”indicates a document that the world was able to read.
Therefore, they would not be workers on the assembly line of the 3008 and 5008, but rather technicians who come to install new machines manufactured in China. Stellantis is investing in a new paint shop, to reduce its energy consumption by 30% and its water consumption by half, and the group confirms that such a facility “requires a qualified and experienced workforce”. It was entrusted to an Italian company, Fidia. The new workshop will use, in one third, French technologies, in another, machines from Stellantis factories that no longer use them, and in the last third, Chinese technologies.
“One year visas”
“To date, just under 30 one-year visa applications [janvier 2025 à janvier 2026] They were made for Chinese workers, indicates a spokesperson. These will be used for the assembly and implementation of the cataphoresis process. [le traitement de la surface métallique des pièces à peindre]. » Without a doubt more will be necessary, but given the difficulty of obtaining these visas, the Italian company “I could turn to other workers”Specifies Stellantis.
The arrival of Chinese machines to equip a Western automobile factory is not the first time. The giant presses in the stamping workshop of the Sochaux factory, renovated four years ago, are also Chinese. Like much of the equipment at the ACC battery factory, of which Stellantis is a shareholder, in Pas-de-Calais. “The other companies that work in this paint workshop are French,” insists the group, which quotes: “Sames and Clid for the integration of robots, the SME EPI, present in Montbéliard, 2MCP for part of the handling and Clemessy, Spie and Firac for automation.” The dismantling of the old line is entrusted to a German company and the civil engineering to a dozen regional companies.
