Michelin to Increase Capacity in Romania

Production capacity at Michelin’s facilities in Romania will be expanded in order to make the country’s operations a strategic centre for the supply of tyres to Southeast Europe. Bucharest based daily newspaper Curierul National quotes Michelin co-managing partner Didier Miraton as stating “Romania is important to us and we intend to produce more, to turn the factories that we have there into a strategic point for South-Eastern Europe, through which we will provide tyres to the countries in the region.” Specific details of the intended capacity or the value of Michelin’s investment in the expansion were not given.

According to Miraton, the current financial crisis should not have a major impact on Michelin business due to the high level of replacement tyres amongst the company’s sales. “The financial crisis does not affect us very much, because more than 60 per cent of our sales are the replacement market, which does not degrade so much as the new vehicles market,” he said. Miraton added that Michelin did not hold any plan to restructure staff in its Romania operations.