Michelin Suspends Production At Shanghai

Production at Michelin’s Shanghai joint venture has been suspended for the past month following a “drastic slowdown in sales in the Chinese car market,” reports the South China Morning Post.

According to an unnamed source at Shanghai Tyre and Rubber, which owns 30 per cent of Shanghai Michelin Warrior Tyre, the production is likely to be halted for another one to two months, because of “continuing hard times.” The venture has yet to record a profit since its establishment in 2001.

A Michelin spokesman in France is said to have told the newspaper that production at the company’s Shanghai plant had only “slowed down because the market has slowed down.”

Michelin has a five per cent share of the Chinese tyre market, the report says.