Nexans S.A. announced the investment of EUR 40 million over the next three years in its Autun site, in order to perpetuate the site's know-how, its industrial competitiveness and employment in France. With demand for electricity expected to increase by 40% by 2040 and limited raw material reserves, Nexans is capitalising on its French territorial roots to build a strong and sustainable ecosystem around three key pillars: innovation, circularity and the use of new industrial technologies. These three pillars are illustrated in Autun by this major investment of EUR 40 million.

The aim is to support the production capacity and competitiveness of the site, which is at the forefront of the industry's new fire safety challenges, and to contribute to its ambition of carbon neutrality. In concrete terms, the Autun plant will: Become a European reference in fire safety technology. This is a major challenge at a time when France, which is exemplary in terms of electrification, is considered to be lagging behind other European markets in terms of fire safety issues in buildings.

Nexans is already anticipating the changes in fire safety standards planned for tertiary buildings (ERP) in 2023: from 2025, 30% of electrical installations in buildings will have to include cables that limit the emission of toxic fumes in the event of a fire. Nexans is capitalising on this expected change in standards to make the Autun site a European centre of expertise in PVC and halogen-free compounds; Strengthen its ability to supply cables made from recycled materials, in particular by improving the circularity of copper, a primary resource that is becoming increasingly scarce. The vertical integration of Nexans' value chain in France, from its metallurgical site in Lens, is a decisive asset.

It allows Nexans to secure supplies, guarantee the continuity of its activity, and support its customers in reducing their carbon footprint. Through this investment programme, the Autun site also aims to reduce the carbon footprint of its production process by more than 4.2% per year, in particular by modernising its equipment, deploying energy saving solutions and reducing the consumption of fossil fuels on the site. To make its Autun site the test-site for an ambitious Industry 4.0 programme, which is intended to be extended to all Nexans sites worldwide from 2023.

In addition to the benefits in terms of industrial productivity, Nexans is aiming for a massive improvement in the safety of its teams and industrial processes, in connection with the training of its employees in the field of automation. Industry 4.0 use cases will be developed there, for greater flexibility and agility: performance monitoring, energy consumption monitoring and real-time data to digitise production indicators and routines. The site, which employs 200 people in the region, is part of Nexans' network of 14 plants in France, which employs 2,300 people.

Since 1979, the Group has invested between EUR 2 and EUR 3 million per year in this plant, which also became the first 100% automated logistics platform in France in 1996. A showcase for the Group's innovation, several building electrification solutions developed in Autun have since been replicated in other markets and have become essential in France. For example, these solutions facilitate the daily work of 30,000 electricians thanks to cables that are easy to unwind, locate and strip: Distingo NX'TAG, Passeo, Easyfil, Mobiway.