Michelin Group recently held an official ground-breaking and traditional first stone ceremony with honored government dignitaries, key customers and company leaders at the new site of its 69th global plant in León, Guanajuato, in central Mexico.
The new plant, Michelin Group’s 21st site in North America, was announced in July. The plant will comprise approximately 142,000 sq m (more than 1.5 million sqft) on approximately 98 hectares (more than 240 acres) in the Parque Industrial León-Bajio, or “Pilba,” as the industrial park is known locally. The plant represents Michelin Group’s largest global investment for 2016, approximately EUR450 million (US$510 million), as the company recently announced.
“Michelin’s customers for passenger-vehicle tires are demanding more and more of our innovative, high-tech tires to meet the performance requirements of the growing market in North America,” Senard said. “This plant will improve our capacity to meet those demands, as a key element of Michelin’s ‘Service to the Customer’ initiative in North America and worldwide.”
Completion of the plant is currently scheduled for late 2018. Production will increase gradually thereafter, eventually reaching 4 to 5 million tyres a year, primarily under the Michelin brand for high-performance and ultra-high-performance cars, light trucks, SUVs and cross-over vehicles. The plant is expected to employ at least 1,000 people at capacity.
“Our actions here today demonstrate our confidence in Mexico’s manufacturing environment, the skilled and talented workforce here and the infrastructure necessary to deliver tires efficiently throughout North America,” said Jean-Dominique Senard, chief executive officer of Michelin Group, based in Clermont-Ferrand, France.
“The new Michelin investment in Mexico represents a vote of confidence that strengthens the positioning of Mexico as an investment destination, because it comes from a company with a long tradition in the industry and widely recognised for its commitment to innovation,” said Ildefonso Guajardo Villarreal, Mexico’s secretary of the economy.