page_title: Société de Construction des Batignolles
section_title: Société de Construction des Batignolles
hierarchical_section_title: Société de Construction des Batignolles / History / Société de Construction des Batignolles
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context_page_description: The Société de Construction des Batignolles was a civil engineering company of France created in 1871 as a public limited company from the 1846 limited partnership of Ernest Gouin et Cie.. Initially founded to construct locomotives, the company produced the first iron bridge in France, and moved away from mechanical to civil engineering projects in France, North Africa, Europe, and in East Asia and South America.
  In 1968 the company merged with the electrical engineering company SPIE to form Spie Batignolles. After being briefly owned by the AMEC group the civil engineering construction activities were split and sold. As of 2011, Spie Batignolles SA is the effective successor of the company.
context_section_description: Conversion to a public company, the Société de Construction des Batignolles (SCB), in 1872 allowed the company to raise capital. By 1880 over 5 million francs of shares had been issued. The new company was to continue the work of Ernest Gouin et Cie.; shipbuilding, bridges and other civil engineering works, and machine and locomotive building. Ernest Goüin died in 1885, to be succeeded by his son Jules as chairman of the company.
  With most mainline railways in Europe complete by the 1870s, the group's search for contracts became increasingly international. By the 1880s civil engineering was becoming the core business. The company undertook some large railway construction projects such as the construction of the line from Bône to Guelma in Algeria for the Compagnie des chemins de fer Bône-Guelma, and the line from Dakar to Saint-Louis, Senegal. These were operated as concessions by subsidiaries of the SCB. By 1913 the company had fourteen subsidiary companies located throughout the world running railways. The company also constructed canals for irrigation, ports and harbours, and water and sewerage systems. Profits from concessions in north Africa, in particular Tunisia, were high (over 25% in the 1890s), and allowed expansion without share issues or loans.
  
  The First World War caused a halt to international civil engineering contracts, except for a line in Greece of significance to military supply. The plant in the Avenue de Clichy produced armoured cars, gun carriages, bombs, trench mortars and other war material. The peace brought opportunities for rebuilding; including a potential demand for new locomotives. In 1917 a locomotive construction company, the Compagnie générale de construction de locomotives (Batignolles-Châtillon) in Nantes was formed by the SCB and the Société des forges de Châtillon-Commentry-Neuves-Maisons. In 1928 SCB closed its factory on the Avenue de Clichy in Paris, transferring locomotive and other manufacturing to the Nantes subsidiary. 
  After the divestment of metal manufacturing to 'Batignolles-Châtillon' most of the company's sales were overseas; one-third came from French colonies, and two-thirds from other countries, much from eastern Europe. In the interwar years the company undertook several major projects including the construction of the Port of Gdynia, and ports in Madagascar and Djibouti, the Congo-Ocean Railway (Chemin de fer Congo-Océan), and began work on a dam near Sansanding on the Niger. The construction of the Chemin de fer Congo-Océan caused a scandal as it used essentially forced labour, with a very heavy cost in life—up to 20% of the workforce in some parts.
  In the years preceding the Second World War, after the 7 July 1938 law relating to industrial mobilisation in war, the SCB obtained several contracts from the French state, such as fortification constructions and armament factory constructions. The subsidiary 'Batignolles-Châtillon' also received numerous orders and expanded its factory, not only for locomotive production but also for the ministries of war. After the beginning of the war and during the German military occupation many overseas projects were halted, and work in France was much reduced. Under pressure from the Nazis, Ernest Goüin (CEO) agreed to help with the construction of the Atlantic Wall, for which he was imprisoned after the Liberation of France. He was released and returned to the position of CEO in October 1946.
  The immediate postwar period was a prosperous one for SCB; the Monnet Plan allocated 50% of expenditure on civil engineering projects. Works included reconstruction of the Port of Le Havre, dams for EDF, including the 2000GWh Barrage de Donzère-Mondragon. In Algeria the Barrage de Foum-el-Gherza was constructed. In French Equatorial Africa through FIDES, and CAIFOM, (and in association with Schneider SA through a limited liability joint venture SCTP.) the company returned to pre-war success, such as with the extension of the port in Doula and the 1,830-metre-long (6,000 ft) bridge over the Wouri, in Cameroon. Additionally SCB agents began to
caption: The Trinity Bridge (Saint Petersburg) was built between 1897 and 1903
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