Géographie d’une industrie automobile modulaire : le cas des équipementiers français en Europe de l’Est

In this paper, we try to understand the new spatial division of labour in the automobile supply industry by considering the localization strategies of French first tier suppliers in European Eastern Countries. The analytical hypothesis is : the development of modular production creates the opportunities to deeply transform the geography of supply chains because modularity creates new opportunities but also new proximity constraints. In a first part, we propose a theoretical typology of locations (with a distinction between production and research units) of first tier suppliers. Then, we deduce which establishments we could find in Eastern Europe Countries. In the second part of the paper, we test our deduction by two ways. First, a statistical analysis of trade exchange of auto parts and components. Second, we make a case study of the French supplier Faurecia. Our results tend to confirm the theoretical analysis. In conclusion, we propose some ways to improve this first work.