Michelin to close passenger car tire plant in US

Ardmore, Oklahoma – Michelin North America is planning to end tire production at its manufacturing plant in Ardmore, the French group has announced.

The tire maker is planning to wind down production at the site, with the goal of completing the process by “yearend 2025 or sooner”, said a Michelin statement issued 26 Oct.

The decision will impact 1,400 people associated with tire-manufacturing activities, excluding additional contractors, at the Ardmore site, which has been producing passenger tires since 1970.

Production at the site, which has the capacity to produce 23,000 units per day of passenger car tires, will “gradually shift” to other Michelin plants in North America.

Explaining the rationale behind the move, Michelin said North America’s passenger-vehicle market is changing “rapidly and profoundly.”

The French group added that it made “substantial investments” over the past five years to improve technical capabilities and competitiveness of the site.

Despite that, it added, the Ardmore factory “is not equipped to deliver tires at competitive costs that will meet these evolving market demands in the coming years.”

According to Michelin, continuing with investment to modernise the Oklahoma plant would “negatively impact other US sites in the network.”

Michelin added that the dominance of light trucks and cross-over vehicles in North America, which require “ever-larger tire sizes”, was another key factor behind the decision.

Other considerations, it said, included “the dynamic market transition to electric vehicles” and requirements for improved rolling-resistance and increase use of sustainable materials technologies.

“Taken together, these factors add substantial complexity to the company’s portfolio, which in turn requires much greater industrial flexibility,” stated Michelin.

While precise timing had not been determined for specific phases of the wind-down, Michelin said it expects operations at Ardmore to trend gradually lower until mid-2024.

By mid-2024, the tire maker expects to see the “first wave of staffing reductions” with additional cuts to occur in phases through to 2025.

Michelin idled its operations at the factory in the morning of 26 Oct, to begin the process of presenting details about the transition directly to each team member.

Operations are expected to resume normally early on 28 Oct.

Michelin’s rubber-mixing operations at the Ardmore plant supply other factories in North America.

After tire-manufacturing activities wind down, these rubber-mixing operations are expected to continue for the foreseeable future.

“Winding down operations is the hardest of all business decisions,” said Terry Redmile, SVP manufacturing for Michelin Group’s Americas.

Over the next few months, Redmile added, the company aims to provide individual support for employees to help them “start a new chapter”.

These will include early retirement, separation benefits and financial incentives for relocation support.