PARIS (Oct. 28, 2008) — Michelin said it will spend more than $250 million during the next five years to upgrade its tire plants in Italy.
The project will include phasing out tire production at the Turin/Stura factory by the end of next year.
The plan calls for a significant increase in production capacity at the Cuneo plant in northwest Italy, which Michelin said will become the largest facility in Europe producing premium passenger tires. The company said daily capacity at the 45-year-old plant is listed at 26,000 passenger, light truck and aircraft tires, and it didn't disclose the increase in production.
At Turin/Sutra, production of semi-finished products will continue. The facility will remain a logistics center, absorbing capacity from a warehouse in nearby Vercelli that Michelin is closing. Capacity at the site was listed as 24,000 passenger tires daily.
Michelin pledged to offer a new position to each employee affected by the job cuts and create the same number of jobs in the local area as will be eliminated.