Michelin scouting for tyre plant site

French tyre manufacturer Michelin India has confirmed plans of setting up a manufacturing facility in India.

Company sources say that the location for the proposed plant has not been finalised as the company is in talks with various State governments including Tamil Nadu.

Michelin is looking at acquiring 290 acres of land for the greenfield facility. Initially only a part of the facility will be used for manufacturing radial tyres for trucks and earthmovers. The scale of operations is not known yet.

Michelin India currently imports most of its tyres from Thailand and China. Certain high end tyres are imported from Europe and South America.

Radial truck tyres offer better fuel efficiency and last longer than normal nylon tyres. This offers substantial economic benefits. This fact is now seeping through to the grassroots of Indian road transport industry, creating greater acceptance and increasing demand for the more expensive radial tyres. As a result radialisation in the truck tyres segment has shot from one percent in 2005 to over eight percent in 2008 and is expected to record good growth in the future.