Michelin North America may look elsewhere for expansion if South Carolina does not come up with a solution for its enormous shortfall in road funding, said Pete Selleck, chairman and president of Greenville, S.C.-based Michelin North America. 
“The roads in this state are a disgrace,” Selleck told the Columbia Regional Business Report while pointing out that the state has a $30 billion shortfall in road funding. “If that does not get solved then Michelin is going have to look about further expansion in this state.”
Selleck made these comments during its first “Michelin Day” – a networking and recruiting event – at the University of South Carolina’s Darla Moore School of Business.
During a lecture, Selleck did list a number of reasons why Michelin has done business in South Carolina during the past 40 years. Chief among those reasons was the state’s workforce. The tiremaker has become the state’s largest manufacturing employer and continues to grow its footprint in the state. Today, Michelin North America will take the wraps off its first plant dedicated to the production of its airless Tweel products, produced in a new plant in Piedmont, S.C. – the 10th Michelin North America plant in the state.
According to local media, last year, the Legislature passed and Gov. Nikki Haley signed a bill that committed more than $600 million for building and repairing roads and bridges. It was the first increase in state funding for highways in nearly three decades.
However, Selleck believes that funding the state’s road system is a top priority for the business community.
“Right now, the whole funding thing is out of whack. We’re $30 billion behind on the road system,” Selleck said. “They need to be fixed, and that probably means some combination of a gas tax increase and some other funding source are going to have to be found.”
