Michelin tyre plant on course for end 2012 production start

French tyre maker Michelin today said it had timed the setting up of its Indian plant perfectly in view of the growing 'radialisation' trend in the country.

Though radial tyres make up only around 14.5 per cent of the Indian tyre industry, the share of radials is expected to reach 50 per cent by 2020, and the company is keen to establish a strong presence in India.

Michelin India Tamil Nadu Tyres Pvt Ltd, a subsidiary of the French company, is in the process of putting up a unit at Thervoy Kandigai Industrial Park in Thiruvallur district. The plant with an investment outlay of Rs.4,000 crore over a seven-year period, is on course to go commercial in November 2012.

Nicolas Beaumont, managing director of the Indian venture said, work was in progress at the site, on the 290-acre land allotted to it by SIPCOT on a long lease. Addressing a press conference in Chennai today, he asserted that Michelin had a commitment to India. He said the Michelin Training Centre was the first building to go operational at the site, which underlined the French major's belief in growing with the community around the site.

The upcoming plant, he said, eventually would have a production capacity of 20 lakh radial truck tyres.
 
''This facility could become the biggest factory ultimately for Michelin,'' Beaumont said.

Answering a wide variety of questions, he said the Indian subsidiary had a 365-strong workforce at the moment which would go up to 500 by the year-end. The final headcount at the Chennai facility would be around 1,500 he said. He said it was expected that the facility would roll out 300,000 radial truck tyres.