Japanese Michelin Plant to Focus on Hi-Tech Offerings

Michelin has decided to specialise tyre production at its facility in Ota, Japan so it can, as the company stated in a press release, “respond more effectively to the specific, highly technological requirements of the local market.” The plant’s efforts will focus upon Japanese demand for sophisticated products such as the directional tread studless winter X Ice tyre, which was especially designed for the Japan market.

The Ota plant will also provide support for Michelin’s R&D centre in Asia, thus strengthening Michelin’s research operations in Japan. To accommodate these changes, the plant will terminate production for other export markets, which represent approximately 60 per cent of its current output, and adjust its production capacities accordingly. Based on an initial estimate of the cost of the plan, a non-recurring expense of roughly 65 million euros will be recognised in the Company’s first-half 2007 financial statements.