RENCH tyre specialist Groupe Michelin has pledged a US$1.06 billion capital investment amidst its moves of plants closing in Columbia and Algeria by end of the year, with the latter being planned to sell to Groupe Cevital, an Algerian private industrial group.
The firm will focus improvements on its plants and R&D operations in France. There will also be an impending phase out of its Joue-les-Tours plant by 2015 to consolidate its tyre output at the La Roche-sur-Yon plant, consequently doubling it from 800,000 to 1.6 million units/year by 2019. Michelin will also allocate US$343 million for general improvements across all of its French operations and will invest US$290 million for modernisation at its Clermont-Ferrand R$D centre.
Michelin is also investing US$125 million through 2019 to upgrade and expand by 40% the annual capacity of plants in Montceau-les-Mines and Le Puy-en-Velay.