Mayor offers Caterpillarsite for Defense Companies

FRANCKEN will be planting a company visit to Audi Brussels with defense companies next week. The interest in that initiative is great, the Agoria sector federation confirmed. For example, the CEO of John Cockerill, François Michel, already showed interest in the site.

But some industrial players from the defense sector, including John Cockerill, also contacted Dermine last weekend, because they are also interested in the former Caterpillar factories in Gosselies. “I also wrote a letter to Minister of Defense Theo Francken to let him know that we will not oppose an industrial project in the defense sector on the Caterpillar site,” Dermine confirms.

According to the mayor, the site in Charleroi is more suitable for the production of armored vehicles. She has a mounting hall for heavy loads of up to 90 tons and the entire site is equipped for machines of 40 tons.

In contrast to the site in Vorst, which is still owned by the German car manufacturer Audi, the Caterpillar sites are the property of the Walloon Region and the local authorities. The site can be released quickly. She is also not enclosed in an urban fabric, such as in Prince, where Mayor Charles Spapens (PS) has already announced that he does not want a weapon factory in his municipality.