PARIS — French train maker Alstom’s historic Belfort production site in eastern France would be "saved" from closure at a meeting with unions this week, Prime Minister Manuel Valls said on Sunday.Eager to avoid a high-profile industrial shutdown seven months before a presidential election, the Socialist Party government has promised a plan to keep production going at the factory, which makes locomotives and built Alstom’s first steam engines in the 1880s.The company announced in September that it planned to transfer production to another site because of insufficient orders.Government representatives and unions are due to meet on Tuesday to discuss ways to prevent the site’s closure."Tuesday, we will save Alstom’s site in Belfort," Valls said. Christophe Sirugue, France’s junior industry minister, would propose various concrete options such as government orders.Alstom CEO Henri Poupart-Lafarge has said that it had little choice but to shift production from Belfort because of a dearth...
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