MICHELIN North America will invest US$200 million to expand its Starr manufacturing plant to increase the company’s output of rubber compound material used to build tyres in the US. The company expects the investment to create more than 100 new jobs.
Altogether, Michelin is investing US$1.15 billion in the South Carolina facility and the creation of at least 870 new manufacturing jobs in the state.
Construction has begun on the Starr plant expansion, which will be adjacent to the current facility. Also nearby is Michelin’s previously announced Earthmover tyre plant that is being built and scheduled to begin producing tyres later this year. Michelin said operations will begin at the expansion in 2014 and will supply material for tyre production in the US, helping meet heightened overall production demands.
The Starr factory is one of two Michelin semi-finished rubber production plants in Anderson County. The company’s largest rubber-producing plant in the world is only a few miles away in Sandy Springs. Built in 1975, that facility was one of Michelin’s first manufacturing facilities in the US. Michelin is South Carolina’s largest manufacturing employer, with nearly 9,000 of its 22,000 employees in the US to be located in South Carolina when all the construction is complete. Nine of Michelin North America’s 18 production facilities are located in the state.(RJA)
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