Alstom confirms shutdown

ALSTOM would go ahead with plans to shut down manufacturing at its Belfort plant in France, CEO Henri Poupart-Lafarge said on Tuesday.

The move will set up a confrontation with French President Francois Hollande, who has vowed that “everything will be done” to prevent it.

The engineering firm, which makes France’s TGV high-speed trains and is 20% controlled by the state, said last week it would stop making rolling stock at Belfort, where its first steam locomotive was built in 1880.

The move caused a political furore at the weekend, and the government demanded he reconsider.

But Poupart-Lafarge showed no sign of backing down. In an e-mail to staff, he said an end to manufacturing at Belfort would help ensure the survival of the company’s wider business. The plant is to be reduced to doing maintenance by 2018. It will affect 400 staff, who are to

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