Michelin "extremely confident" in China: managing partner

The world's leading tire producer Michelin is "extremely confident in China," given the country's strong economic growth and increasing need for mobility, the company's managing partner, Jean-Dominique Senart, told Xinhua on Friday.

Sharing a similar view with many other people who have traveled to China, Senart said: "We are very confident in what is happening in China today. I believe what is important is the long-term relationship."

According to the group's financial results for the first half of 2010, Michelin's net sales climbed 17 percent compared with the first half of 2009, to 8.35 billion euros (10.89 billion U.S. dollars), mainly boosted by emerging markets such as China, Brazil and other South American and Southeast Asian countries.

Senart said the group has "extremely great and positive perspectives about the automobile market" in China.

"China, like the other areas in the world, is developing its economy with mobility as a basis," he said, adding that "the need for mobility ... and thus the need for tires will be increasing for the coming years."

"I believe that almost 70-percent growth of the tire market will come from geographic areas such as China," he stressed.

Michelin started its presence in China in 1989, and has pledged to invest 1 billion U.S. dollars in the country by 2012 to build a new passenger car and truck tire manufacturing plant.

"We have tire factories in Shanghai, in Shenyang, and we have important projects to come, which allow us to provide services to the Chinese customers in relation with small vehicles as well as big trucks," Senart noted.

As for the outlook of the Chinese market, he said Michelin is not only extremely confident in the further progress of its current projects, but also in the "obtaining of the authorization for the great projects that we are developing now."

Citing "Better City, Better Life," the theme of the ongoing 2010 Shanghai World Expo, where Michelin is a main sponsor for the French Pavilion, Senart noted the tire maker has added its own signature with "Better Way Forward" to the slogan.

Early this year, Michelin launched a campaign in China to highlight awareness of sustainable development and environmental protection. The "turn your journey green" campaign with a route from Beijing to forests in Yunnan Province lasted a few months and turned out to be a big success.

Michelin now runs four factories in Shanghai and Shenyang, with over 5,500 employees in China by 2008, according to the company's figures.

Source: Xinhua