The weak dollar weighs heavily on the French aerospace industry.

In the face of eroding margins, a loss of competitiveness to their US rivals and shrinking R&D financing capacities, most industrial groups see relocation to the dollar area or low-cost countries as the only solution. Daher, Zodiac, Latecoere, Safran, as well as Airbus, have all set plans to relocate production to such countries as Mexico, North Africa, China, India or the US. Oddo Securities analyst Yan Derocles says this trend actually started “three to four years ago, accelerates today and will keep on going”. As for SMEs, most of which cannot afford to move abroad, consolidation seems to be the only alternative. La Tribune