There is nothing official, but news from France suggests that the Chinese YTO Group is closing its tractor transmission and component facility at Saint-Dizier.
According to a report on Info France 3 Champagne-Ardenne, Covid-19 is cited as one of the reasons why the Chinese parent company is pulling the plug on the facility.
Up until a couple of years ago, transmissions made by the French facility were shipped to China. However, the downturn in the domestic market meant they were no longer needed and the YTO Group considered closing the site early 2019.
In the end, the decision was taken to keep it open and build tractors for the European market under the Mancel brand. The first 110hp to 145hp F5 Series tractors were previewed at the French SIMA show last year, where the company not only spoke of plans to appoint European dealers and partners for the French-made four-model range, but also invest around €60 million at St. Dizier.
The YTO Group had planned to invest around €60 million at Saint-Dizier to build Mancel branded tractors for the European market.
Production of the new tractors should have started this year. Smaller and more powerful models were in the pipeline and YTO France was hopeful of ramping up the numbers to 8,000 tractors a year by 2025. The closure of the site must surely herald the end to these plans.
The Saint-Dizier plant was the town’s main employer for decades, and at one time provided several thousand jobs. Established by International Harvester in 1949, the facility came under Case-IH control in 1984 and from 1999 was part of CNH. Argo Tractors (McCormick) took over in 2001 and sold the facility to YTO in 2011, when staff numbers were down to around 223. We understand that the last 35 are currently in the process of being made redundant. It is not known what will become of the 20ha site.
