Who killed the the last and only French manufacturer of tunnel boring machines NFM Technologies? With its new name Tunneling Equipment?

I have read one or two posts here. Some of them blamed Muhlhauser. In my opinion the German company Muhlhauser must be praised for trying to save NFM Technologies. It is sad that some go as far as blaiming Muhlhauser, the only good thing that happened to NFM for a long time.

In my opinion, European Union and China are jointly responsible for the demise of NFM Technologies.

China, because the purchase of NFM by Chinese company NHI has derailed the business and company culture of NFM.

NHI tried to transform NFM to an international company. As Lyon Entreprises very well puts it, NHI concentrated on increasing the sales volume. It worked to some point. The revenue of the company rose from 90 million euros in 2011 to 165 million in 2015. This came at a price. Some of NFM manufacturing has been moved to China, to keep the costs low and sales high.

NHI was not super-successful selling in China. Chinese officials are not as stupid as European officials. They already have CRCHI, CREG which are full-blooded Chinese companies. Why would they buy from NHI which partly produced in France? China will buy from foreign companies only if no Chinese company can supply that machine. If they are still buying Herrenknecht, it is because, Herrenknecht is still the best in certain applications.

European Union is also one of the murderers. Only if Paris bought so many TBMs they use in Grand Paris Express from NFM Technologies.... Only if. It was not possible, thanks to European Union tender laws. NFM has lost to Herrenknecht because the latter is more competitive. The latter is more competitive because it is so much bigger and enjoys the economies of scale.

NFM had no chances of survival. I feel ashamed when I hear that the German owner of NFM did not do enough before they themselves went bankrupt. We can only be very thankful to Muhlhauser for trying. Muhlhauser did all they could. If French officials had been only little bit more competent and allow some slight competitive advantage for NFM.

Gone is gone. Europe must do everything to save Herrenknecht.