Even as Groupe Michelin is tightening its European production and closing its plants in Columbia and Algeria, the tiremaker pledged an investment of some 800 million euros to capital improvements.
Most of the focus will be on its plants and R&D operations in France, where investments are pegged between 2013 and 2019. This will include closure of its Joue-les-Tours plant, doubling output at its truck tire plant in La Roche-sur-Yon (from 800,000 to 1.6 million units per year) by 2019, and a 220 million euro “modernization” at its hometown R&D center in Clermont Ferrand.
The Joue-les-Tours plant will be closed by 2015, then converted to produce semi-finished goods for tire production elsewhere. That will take a 22 million euro investment, and will retain 200 jobs there.