The Michelin Group and the Tamil Nadu Government have finally inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the set up of a tyre plant by Michelin Group in the state.
The plan for Michelin to be more than just a tyre importer and operator in the Indian market has now surpassed its purpose for the company was clear that once India reached a critical volume, it would be necessary for the company to set up a facility in the country to cater to the growing needs. Michelin made it clear that it would be investing in a tyre factory in the near future and recent developments have it that the company has gone ahead and signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Tamil Nadu government in order to build this new facility.
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The land allotted to Michelin for the project is located 50 km north of Chennai at Thervoy Kandigai in the Thiruvallur district. The plant will be spread across 290 acres and the Michelin Group has committed an investment of Rs 4,000 crore for the project. The new plant will also open jobs for 1,500 workers locally.
This is a major step forward for the brand and highlighting this occasion, Mr. Prashant Prabhu, President, Michelin Africa-India-Middle East, said, "I would like to express my deepest gratitude to the Tamil Nadu government for offering Michelin a gateway to this state and providing the project with the necessary infrastructure to commence operations here. With the accelerating development of road and highways infrastructure and the number of ongoing road development projects, India is on course to offer customers the opportunity to extract the full value from radial tyres. We believe that India holds tremendous potential for the Michelin Group in terms of establishing a world class manufacturing facility."
Incidentally, the plant which is set to commence production by 2012, will only manufacture truck and bus radials. The company is bullish on this particular segment of the tyre market and wishes to take this segment on with a strong footing. Having said that, the Michelin Group has not ruled out manufacturing passenger car tyres in India instead of importing them from their Thailand facility, but such decisions will only be taken in the future. For now, the focus is on Michelin's first plant in India and the truck/bus radial market, which thanks to the advancements in infrastructure across the country, is touted to be a booming tyre segment.
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