Michelin starts expansion project at Shanghai tire factory

Shanghai, China – Michelin Group has broken ground on the second phase of an expansion project at its passenger car tire manufacturing plant in China.

In a ceremony 20 Nov, attended by group CEO Florent Menegaux, the French tire maker said the project aimed to enhance Shanghai factory’s green and intelligent manufacturing processes.

The project, covering an area of more than 70,000 square metres, is expected to be by 2026 and will increase annual production capacity at the plant from 8.5 million units to 9.5 million.

"China is one of the important markets for Michelin Group, with unlimited opportunities and potential,” said Menegaux, at the groundbreaking ceremony.

With China moving towards high-quality development, Menegaux said the travel industry and consumption consumers' demand for green and smart products continues to increase.

This, he added, will create more opportunities for Michelin's further development in China.

To address demand, Michelin launched the two-phased “renovation and expansion” project at the Shanghai plant in 2021.

In the first phase, Michelin said it inteded to enhance intelligent manufacturing at the site while producing environmentally friendly tires for the market.

This involved technical transformation of the existing radial tire production line, the construction of a new spare parts and mould warehouse, the introduction of automated storage devices.

Michelin also improved the layout of the workshop while debottlenecking processes through new equipment.

This project increase production capacity from 7 million to 8.5 million units per year.

The French group currently operates two tire production facilities in Shanghai and Shenyang in China as well as one rubber products manufacturing site in Qingdao.