Feds need to address impact of St. Lawrence seaway strike, stakeholders say

Labour Minister  says he won't interfere in negotiations beyond providing federal mediation between the company and Unifor. 

Story by Nicole Williams • CBC

Canada's labour minister says he won't interfere in negotiations to end the strike at St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corp., but those who rely on the shipping channel argue there's no time to wait for a deal with millions of dollars in grain at stake.

About 360 employees with the government-established company have been on the picket line since Sunday after negotiations broke down with union representatives at Unifor.

Company and union officials are expected back at the bargaining table on Friday when they sit down with federal mediators in Toronto.

For now roughly 100 ships, including cargo vessels, have been halted along the artery of the St. Lawrence River between Montreal and Lake Erie.

The union is demanding higher wages for workers and for the company to address "a toxic workplace," said National President Lana Payne from the picket line Tuesday.

"We want a reasonable agreement for our members," Payne said. "But it takes two to tango and the reality is ... this employer has not been willing to make a serious offer."

In a statement released earlier this week, company officials said they were "pleased" to resume talks with Unifor and they have been "extremely concerned" with the impacts caused by the current strike.

They said work is ongoing to reach a "mutually beneficial agreement."


Lana Payne, national president of Unifor, talks to St. Lawrence seaway workers from a picket line in St. Catharines, Ont., Tuesday. (Paul Smith/CBC)© Provided by cbc.ca
Port running out of grain storage

Even if a deal is reached by Friday the strike has already hurt local producers, said Robert Dalley, who manages the port in Johnstown, Ont.

Truckloads of soybeans harvested by local farmers continue to be delivered to the port — approximately 5,500 tonnes every day — and stored inside grain elevators.

Ships are typically scheduled to come once a week to load and deliver the supply to buyers, which in turn creates more room for storage at the port.

"When those vessels stop, eventually the system will back up," said Dalley.



A lineup of trucks at the Port of Johnstown is seen delivering soybeans harvested from local farmers. Dalley says there will be no more room for the 5,000 tonnes of soybeans each truck brings if there is no ship to take them in the next few days. (Nicole Williams/CBC)© Provided by cbc.ca

About 125,000 tonnes of soybeans are yet to be harvested this season but will have nowhere to go, and potentially cost farmers $62 million in lost revenue, he added.

This is the consequence of the strike and the corn harvest could also be affected next, which is why Dalley urged both the union and Seaway to come to an agreement quickly.

Related video: 'This stops global trade': The impact of the St. Lawrence Seaway Strike on Western New York (WKBW Buffalo, NY)  Duration 2:56   View on Watch

"As a worldwide exporter of grain, of soybean, we need to be reliable. We need to be able to move our grain into the port and move it out to Quebec and over to the European markets," he said.

"When you don't do that and people are waiting for it, they will find it somewhere else."
No back-to-work legislation planned

Those concerns are echoed by federal officials who are keeping a close eye on the situation, but said they have no plans to intervene in negotiations. They continue to urge both parties to return to the bargaining table.

"We just keep talking to our American counterparts. They're obviously very concerned and have a lot at stake, as do a lot of members of this caucus around the Great Lakes communities," Labour Minister Seamus O'Regan said Wednesday.


Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan says he won't interfere in negotiations beyond providing federal mediation between the company and Unifor. 

(Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)

The Canadian Chamber of Commerce (CCOC) has called on the government to "immediately intervene to prevent further damage to supply chains and limit the impact on Canadians," saying the situation can't wait until Friday.

"Canada is at a critical point right now," said Pascal Chan, senior director of transportation, infrastructure and construction at the CCOC.

"Our supply chains are fragile and they have been impacted over the last few years by events such as wildfires, floods, the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as most recently the port strike in British Columbia."

Other groups such as the Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses have asked the government to keep the seaway fully operational to minimize damage to small and large markets as negotiations continue.

 

 

Exclusive-Shell cuts low-carbon jobs, scales back hydrogen in overhaul by CEO

Story by By Ron Bousso  • 

A view shows a logo of Shell petrol station in South East London, Britain, February 2, 2023.

 REUTERS/May James//File Photo© Thomson Reuters

By Ron Bousso

LONDON (Reuters) -Shell will cut around 15% of the workforce at its low-carbon solutions division and scale back its hydrogen business as part of CEO Wael Sawan's drive to boost profits, the company confirmed in response to a query from Reuters on Wednesday.

The staff cuts and organizational changes come after Sawan, who took the helm in January, vowed to revamp Shell's energy transition strategy to focus on the most profitable renewables and low-carbon business, steady oil production, and grow gas output.

Shell will cut 200 jobs in 2024 and has placed another 130 positions under review as part of a drive to reduce the headcount in the unit, a spokesperson said.

Some of these roles will be integrated into other parts of Shell, the company added.

"We are transforming our Low Carbon Solutions (LCS) business to strengthen its delivery on our core low-carbon business areas such as transport and industry," the company said.

The LCS operations include the hydrogen and other businesses looking at decarbonizing the transport and industry sectors, but does not include the renewable power business.

Shell managers last week held several town hall meetings with the LCS division where the job cuts and organizational changes were announced, company sources said.

(Reporting by Ron Bousso; editing by Jason Neely and Jan Harvey)

Related video: Shell cuts jobs in low-carbon, scales back hydrogen (Reuters)
Duration 1:24
View on Watch

BC

First Nations petitioning to stop Canfor logging

Story by The Canadian Press  • 

West Moberly First Nations have filed a B.C. Supreme Court petition to protect the Anzac and Table River area from logging proposed by Canfor, claiming Treaty 8 rights and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) have been breached.

Specifically, West Moberly are challenging a cutting permit and road permit amendment issued September 26, stating they weren’t notified that Canfor had applied for the permits or that the province was considering issuing them, even after prior concerns that had already been raised to133 other forestry-related permits.

Known as Chuu Xaadeslii by the Dunne-za people or “Where the Water Starts”, West Moberly says the region would be significantly impacted by industrial activity.

An old growth analysis was provided by West Moberly to the province, noting that 82 percent had already been lost and all of the proposed clearcuts would remove another four percent, leaving only 14 percent, which is not enough to sustain their way of life.

According to the petition, Chief Roland Willson sent a June 13 letter to the province advising that West Moberly would impose a moratorium over all current or proposed forestry activities within the Chuu Xaadeslii region due to concerns with Canfor reports shared in January and October 2022. 

“The Province has not completed the necessary cumulative effects assessment needed to consider forestry activities in the Chuu Xaadeslii,” states the petition.

Mercury contamination in bull trout on the Crooked River, industrial land use in the Parsnip River watershed, unexpected turbidity in the Anzac River, loss of ability to engage in cultural practices due to forestry activities, and declines of caribou and moose populations are top concerns listed by West Moberly.

It’s also alleged the Ministry of Forests said discussions were ongoing with Canfor and the ministry promised to keep the nations updated. The petition notes West Moberly have yet to be informed on any outcome from those discussions.

Tom Summer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Alaska Highway News

 

By defending the squats, we defend the movement against the rotten world of authority

Comment, Oct 25th

From the ashes of Evros, central Greece and Rhodes to the mud of the valley:

Last summer, we experienced destructive fires and floods – the result of the political choices of the New Democracy government – with thousands of acres of land and lifelong struggles getting lost in the mud and the ashes. Political choices led to the death of dozens of refugees and local citizens and thousands of animals found dead, burnt or drowned waiting for the 112 of the eviction of their souls: the free social spaces and squats, the only barricade against the insufficiency of the state mechanisms.

The general antagonistic movement and the self-organized spaces build defences against the destruction, the inexistence and the neglectfulness of the state. Solidarity networks are established, and they dive into the fires and floods. Squats and self-organized spaces coordinate, setting up cooking places and organising the fulfilment of needs of the afflicted.

Resistance against barbarity. The state mechanism blames the afflicted while hitting the squats to disorient. Uprising now and always. While we drown in mud and fight the fires, the state does not waste any opportunity to attack self-organised structures. Self-organisation is the society we desire, of the elimination of oppression and the exploitation of humans on other humans, animals and the environment. Our lives are constantly in danger of being lost in the fires and floods, in the trains and ships, at the borders and by the uniformed murderers and the useless government funded people within our villages and cities. We defend the movement against the rotten world of authority by defending the squats.

Solidarity with all those struggling within or outside the walls against the system that gives birth and upbrings poverty, fascism, war and death. Get your hands off the squats. See you on the streets.

~ Autonomous Centre of Kavala & Squat Vyronos 3

UN report warns of catastrophic risks to Earth systems


AFP
October 25, 2023

Pakistani porters hike the Baltoro Glacier, July 14, 2023 

- Copyright AFP Guillem SARTORIO

Melting glaciers, unbearable heat and space junk: a month before crunch climate talks in the United Arab Emirates, a UN report published Wednesday warns about irreversible impacts to the planet without drastic changes to connected social and physical systems.

The Interconnected Disaster Risks Report identifies thresholds it calls “risk tipping points,” defined as “the moment at which a given socioecological system is no longer able to buffer risks and provide its expected function” — after which the risk of catastrophe increases significantly.

It focuses on six areas that connect the physical and natural world with human society: accelerating extinctions, groundwater depletion, mountain glacial melt, space debris, unbearable heat and an “uninsurable” future.

“As we indiscriminately extract our water resources, damage nature and biodiversity, and pollute both Earth and space, we are moving dangerously close to the brink of multiple risk tipping points that could destroy the very systems that our life depends on,” said Zita Sebesvari, the report’s lead author.

For example: underground water reservoirs represent an essential freshwater resource around the world and today mitigate half of the losses of agriculture caused by droughts, which are being exacerbated by climate change.

But aquifers themselves are now depleting faster than they can be naturally replenished: Saudi Arabia has already crossed the groundwater risk tipping point while India isn’t far behind.

In the case of accelerating extinctions, the report highlights the cascading effects of extinctions throughout food chains.

“The gopher tortoise, which is threatened with extinction, digs burrows that are used by more than 350 other species for breeding, feeding, protection from predators and avoiding extreme temperatures,” the report said.

If the gopher tortoise goes extinct, the gopher frog that helps control insect populations will likely follow, triggering effects throughout the entire forest ecosystem of the southeastern United States.

Mountain glaciers that store vast amounts of freshwater meanwhile are melting twice as fast as they did in the past two decades.

“Peak water” — the point when a glacier produces its maximum amount of water runoff due to melting — has been reached or is expected to be reached within the next ten years across small glaciers in Central Europe, Western Canada and South America.

“The 90,000+ glaciers of the Himalayas, Karakoram and Hindu Kush mountains are at risk, and so are the nearly 870 million people that rely on them,” the report said.

In the case of space junk, the report warns Earth’s orbit is in danger of becoming so full of debris that a collision triggers a chain reaction that threatens humanity’s ability to operate satellites — including those that provide vital early warning monitoring against disasters.

The report finds most solutions currently being implemented focus on delaying problems rather than genuinely addressing the root causes.

“We need to understand the difference between adapting to risk tipping points and avoiding them, and between actions that delay looming risks and those that move us towards transformation,” it said.

‘No limit’ to hell people can inflict on children, says artist Helnwein

AFP
October 25, 2023

Austrian-Irish artist Gottfried Helnwein, who is famous for his hyperrealistic paintings - Copyright AFP ISAAC LAWRENCE

Kiyoko METZLER

Art is “probably the only help one has to cope” in a world being traumatised by the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, one of Austria’s most famous artists told AFP.

“What is taking place is depressing,” said Gottfried Helnwein as a retrospective of his work opened Wednesday at Vienna’s Albertina gallery.

The provocative artist — who has worked with Marilyn Manson and the Rolling Stones — is known for his haunting photo-realistic paintings which depict violence, power and abuse inflicted on defenceless children.

“There is no limit to what people are capable of doing against someone who cannot defend themselves,” said the 75-year-old, whose work has often evoked his homeland’s dark Nazi past.

“When I see a child, in the current wars, wounded, crying or dying, it affects me.”

“The question (of) whether it is an Israeli or a Palestinian, a Ukrainian or a Russian child becomes superfluous” since it is “a human being who certainly does not deserve this”, he said.

The defenceless child is a “central figure” in Helnwein’s works.

For the artist, the child is also a metaphor for both human vulnerability and strength that is “completely at the mercy of the fairness of adults”.

His oeuvre also includes performances, photography and collaborations with controversial US shock rocker Manson — who married Dita Von Teese in his Irish castle — and German metal band Rammstein.

– Painting Hitler in blood –

Born in Vienna in 1948, Helnwein grew up in the shadow of two lost world wars, the Holocaust and the Nazi era weighing heavily on people’s minds.

“Vienna was a shit city after the war. Everything was grey and black, people were unfriendly,” he said of the smothering atmosphere he struggled to comprehend as a child.

“It was an appalling climate, because history is simply not without consequences.”

As a response, “very aggressive, rebellious art” emerged in Vienna in particular as a post-war generation of artists revolted against their parents’ legacy.

Through researching the horrors of the Nazi past and the Holocaust, Helnwein zeroed in on the topic of violence against the defenceless — especially children and women.

“I knew that the only way out for me to approach this subject was art,” he said.

Only when people are “emotionally touched” by his works does he consider them finished, the artist said.

Helnwein’s early pieces in the 1960s provoked public outcry when he used his own blood to paint Adolf Hitler.

His subsequent paintings would also frequently be confiscated and damaged.

“Over the past decades the attacks have decreased more and more. But there are always people who attack you,” Helnwein said, as he has learned to live with criticism.

Asked about his alleged links to the controversial Church of Scientology, Helnwein — who divides his time between Ireland and the US since leaving Austria in the 1980s — declined to comment.

The Vienna retrospective features more than 40 of Helnwein’s works from the past three decades and runs until 11 February 2024.

Heineken warns of slowdown in consumer demand

AFP
October 25, 2023


Dutch brewing giant Heineken said Wednesday that it sold less beer in the third quarter, noting that higher prices and the poor economic outlook was affecting consumer demand.

The company, whose stable of brands includes Amstel, Sol and Tiger, sold 63.2 million hectolitres of beer in the three months to end of September, a drop of 5.4 percent.

Like many firms, Heineken raised prices as inflation hit the cost of its inputs, so overall revenues still rose, edging 2.0 percent higher compared to the same quarter last year to 9.6 billion euros ($10.1 billion) during the quarter.

Commenting on the drop in sales volumes, Heineken’s chief executive Dolf van den Brink said that although “inflation-led pricing is tapering, we observe a slowdown of consumer demand in various markets facing challenging macro-economic conditions.”

But profits have been squeezed. The brewing giant does not provide a third quarter net profit figure, but based on its published data the firm earned 768 million euros during the quarter, a drop of 18 percent.

Over the first nine months of the year, profits were down 12.5 percent to 1.924 billion euros, with Heineken saying the figure included the effects of exceptional items like its exit from Russia.

Heineken completed its exit from Russia in August, announcing it sold its operations to the locally-based Arnest Group at an exceptional loss of around 300 million euros.

But CEO van den Brink noted that sales volumes trends were improving in half of the company’s markets and that the company would continue to pursue its strategy of containing costs and rebalancing towards growing markets.

Heineken left in place its outlook for a stable to mid-single-digit increase in operating profit in 2023 as a whole.

Heineken’s shares rose in morning trading but gave up their gains to stand flat in midday trading, while Amsterdam’s all-share AEX index was down 0.1 percent.

‘Severely punished’: Vietnam environmental activists face crackdown

AFP
October 25, 2023

Hoang Thi Minh Hong, pictured here in 2022, is the fifth Vietnamese environmentalist jailed for tax evasion 

- Copyright Hoang Vinh Nam/AFP Handout

Alice PHILIPSON

Hoang Thi Minh Hong had worried for months she could become the next environmental activist swept up in Vietnam’s crackdown, so she closed her NGO and began keeping a low profile.

But it wasn’t enough, and last month she became the fifth environmentalist jailed for tax evasion, in what activists see as a campaign to silence them.

Her conviction came less than a year after a group of donors including the United States and European Union pledged to mobilise $15.5 billion in funding as part of a Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) to help Vietnam switch to clean energy faster.

The deal was hailed by US President Joe Biden as part of Vietnam’s “ambitious clean energy future”.

“Hong doesn’t deserve a single day in jail, because she’s innocent,” her husband Hoang Vinh Nam, 54, told AFP.

“She worked for the environment, for wildlife, for a better place. And now she’s been severely punished for doing that.”

Just a week before Hong’s conviction, Ngo Thi To Nhien, director of an independent energy policy think tank working on the JETP implementation, and a leading Vietnamese energy expert, was also arrested. She was accused of appropriating documents from a state-owned power firm.

The country’s communist government tolerates no opposition to its one-party rule and regularly jails critics, but its recent focus on environmental activists appears to carry a particular message, said Jonathan London, an expert on contemporary Vietnam.

“What I think we’re seeing is a concerted effort… to declare that all matters of public concern are to be addressed by the party and its state alone,” he told AFP.

Environmental activism could pose a singular threat because it targets powerful economic interests, which in Vietnam “are always closely affiliated with state power”, he added.

– ‘Shut his mouth’ –

The arrests began in 2021 with the detention of Dang Dinh Bach, a legal adviser and NGO worker who worked on coal issues. He was sentenced to five years in prison on evidence his wife Tran Phuong Thao said was fabricated.

“He pursued justice and he was on the side of the weak,” the 29-year-old told AFP. “But his work touched upon the interests of companies and authorities, and they wanted to shut his mouth.”

In January 2022, authorities detained Nguy Thi Khanh, founder of Green ID, one of Vietnam’s most prominent environmental organisations.

She was an early and rare voice challenging Hanoi’s plans to increase coal power to fuel economic development. She was jailed later that year.

The 88 Project, which advocates for freedom of expression in Vietnam, found “serious irregularities” in the way criminal procedures and sentences were applied to Bach and Khanh — as well as two other jailed environmental activists: Mai Phan Loi, and Bach Hung Duong.

Bach received one of the heaviest sentences for someone convicted of tax evasion, despite the amount involved being much lower than in other cases with similar sentences, the group said.

Pham Thu Hang, a spokesperson for Vietnam’s foreign ministry, strongly rejected claims of a “politically motivated” crackdown on environmentalists, saying each individual had violated national law.

Khanh and Loi were both released from jail this year.

But Bach is still in prison, has been intimidated and beaten, and is refusing to pay back the $55,000 he is alleged to owe, said his wife Thao.

Authorities have threatened to confiscate the apartment where she lives with their two-year-old son, she said.

– JETP ‘not punitive’ –

Washington said it was “deeply concerned” by Hong’s conviction, and has urged Vietnam “to ensure its actions are consistent with… its international commitments, including to consult with non-government stakeholders as part of the Just Energy Transition Partnership”.

“We have had numerous conversations at every step along the way about respect for human rights and our concerns about the environmental activists,” a US government official told AFP.

Still, there has been little sign the International Partners Group (IPG) — the coalition of donors signed up to the JETP — see the arrests as jeopardising the agreement.

The arrests are “a major hindrance to Vietnam’s ability to not only achieve the JETP goals… but more broadly Vietnam’s own goals to achieve net zero”, a government official from an IPG country told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

But, the JETP “is not set up in a way that is punitive”.

That is little comfort to Vietnam’s community of environmental activists who remain “very worried”, Hong’s husband Nam said.

One NGO worker, who declined to be named, said several accountants in the industry had quit their jobs, fearful of putting a foot wrong with regard to Vietnam’s complex tax laws.

Nam said Hong wrote to the tax department more than a year before her arrest and was told that CHANGE, her NGO, did not owe anything.

But now she has to pay back $300,000 — “more than the total income she received in the last ten years”, he said.

“It’s an injustice.”

US auto workers union reaches preliminary deal with Ford


AFP
October 25, 2023

UAW President Shawn Fain, shown at a Chicago rally earlier this month, hailed a tentative agreement with Ford as an historic win - 

Copyright GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File Jim Vondruska

John BIERS

The US auto workers union reached a tentative agreement with Ford late Wednesday, a breakthrough in a 41-day stoppage on Detroit’s “Big Three” car manufacturers.

The deal, which rank-and-file workers must still approve in a vote, includes a 25 percent wage increase for hourly employees, the United Auto Workers (UAW) union said.

Other key elements include guaranteed cost-of-living adjustments; an elimination of different pay levels or “tiers” that disadvantage junior employees; and a right to strike over plant closures.

“For months we’ve said that record profits mean record contracts,” said UAW President Shawn Fain in a statement. “And UAW family, our Stand Up Strike has delivered.”

Ford confirmed the agreement, saying “we are pleased to have reached a tentative agreement on a new labor contract with the UAW covering our US operations.”

Also cheering was US President Joe Biden, who hailed an “historic accord,” saying “I applaud the UAW and Ford for coming together after a hard fought, good faith negotiation and reaching a historic tentative agreement tonight.”

Biden made history in September as the first US president to stand on a picket line as he endorsed the UAW’s call for “record” contracts in light of record auto industry profits.

The wage increase in the tentative agreement is somewhat lower than the 40 percent sought by Fain when the UAW launched the strike on September 15 in the first ever simultaneous stoppage of Detroit’s Big Three (Ford, General Motors and Stellantis).

However, it is much above the nine percent increase Ford initially proposed in August.

“This agreement sets us on a new path to make things right at Ford, at the Big Three, and across the auto industry,” Fain said, while stressing that the final decision rests with members.

“We’re going to let that democratic process take its course,” said Fain, calling the rank-and-file “the highest authority.”

Fain said the ratification process will include detailed online presentations and regional meetings.

After rejecting a tentative agreement struck by UAW negotiators, workers at Mack Trucks voted to go on strike earlier this month.

– Expanding strike –

While the initial UAW strike targeted three plants with just 12,700 workers walking out, the union has gradually expanded the action in the ensuing weeks as it has sought a better deal.

More than 45,000 workers were on strike prior to the Ford deal. The UAW has about 146,000 auto workers in the United States.

In just the last two days, the UAW escalated the strike at both Stellantis and GM, taking down key factories in Michigan and Texas that make some of the companies’ most profitable vehicles.

Both GM and Stellantis are currently offering 23 percent wage hikes. Fain has argued the companies need to sweeten the deal further in light of union concessions after bankruptcy reorganizations more than a decade ago.

Following a tentative agreement, labor unions sometimes do not end a strike until the accord is ratified by members.

But in a twist, the UAW said Ford workers would return to their shifts to apply pressure to GM and Stellantis.

“This is a strategic move to get the best deal possible,” said UAW Vice President Chuck Browning, adding that “the last thing” GM and Stellantis want is for Ford to get back to full capacity while they mess around and lag behind.”

Stellantis to buy stake in Chinese EV start-up Leapmotor

AFP
October 25, 2023

Stellantis will pay China's Leapmotor $1.6 billion for a 20 percent stake

 - Copyright AFP Tobias SCHWARZ

Global carmaker Stellantis said Thursday it will buy a 20 percent stake in Chinese electric car maker Leapmotor, making it the latest European brand seeking a foothold in the country’s highly competitive market via partnerships with local manufacturers.

Hangzhou-based Leapmotor only produces electric vehicles and is relatively unknown in Europe, despite selling 10,000 cars a month in China, while Stellantis is one of the world’s largest carmakers, owning popular brands including Alfa Romeo and Jeep.

Under the deal, the Netherlands-based firm will spend 1.5 billion euros ($1.6 billion) on the stake in Leapmotor.

The two firms will also establish a Stellantis-led joint venture, Leapmotor International, which will hold “exclusive rights for the export and sale, as well as manufacturing, of Leapmotor products outside Greater China”, Stellantis said.

“As consolidation unfolds among the capable electric vehicles start-ups in China, it becomes increasingly apparent that a handful of efficient and agile new generation EV players, like Leapmotor, will come to dominate the mainstream segments in China,” Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares said in a statement.

“It’s the perfect time to take a leading role in supporting the global expansion plans of Leapmotor, one of the most impressive new EV players who has a similar tech-first, entrepreneurial mindset to ours,” he said.

With 200 vehicles on French roads since last spring, Leapmotor is seeking to clear regulatory hurdles from the European Union in order to deploy more widely in France — its first target market in Europe.

The start-up offers a compact model, the T03, priced at 26,000 euros — aimed at meeting market demand for entry-level electric cars.

Leapmotor told AFP in September that it was ready to ally with a European group, though it did not confirm rumours about a potential alliance with Stellantis.

The company’s CEO, Zhu Jiangming, hailed the partnership with Stellantis as a “great milestone” in the firm’s history.

Stellantis already has a presence in China, via a tie-up with the Chinese group Dongfeng Motor to sell its Peugeot and Citroen cars in the world’s second-largest economy.

But it has struggled to gain a foothold, announcing last week that it would sell the three factories owned by that joint venture to Dongfeng Motor in line with a “strategy of reducing our assets in China”.

And a joint venture with Guangzhou Automobile Group filed for bankruptcy last year.

Other European manufacturers have also stepped up partnerships with Chinese companies to win over local customers.

In July, German car giant Volkswagen announced it would invest more than 600 million euros in Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer XPeng.