Automobile tire market has grown by ten percent in Q1 2011, shows Michelin Romania

Recently appointed general manager of Michelin Romania and the Balkan area, Eric Faidy , stated today that the tire market in Romania has reached an estimate growth of ten percent in the first trimester of this year. The French company has marked ten years in Romania, with total investments reaching EUR 265 million so far.

As Faidy observed, the car market has supported a continuous growth until 2007, a situation which came to a halt in 2008, with the emergence of the crisis. The car market is however showing signs of recovery this year and will reach a growth of 10 percent in sales, a hypothesis sustained by the new environmental tax and the program for replacing old cars, Rabla. This expected growth will impact the automobile tire market, as well, which has a very high growth potential in Romania, of around six percent between 2011-2015, according to estimations made by Michelin.

Thus, in 2011, as mentioned above, the automobile tire market has grown by ten percent in the first trimester and has supported a twenty percent increase in the performance sectors against last year (two-wheel vehicles, 4WD).

Michelin Romania has an estimate of 3,000 employees and three production units in Romania. The French tire manufacturer entered the Romanian market in 2011, with the acquisition of two tire plants from Tofan Group. A third, greenfield, plant was constructed in 2004, which specializes in metallic chords. In total, so far, Michelin Romania has produced over 450,000 tons of tires and over 150,000 tons of metallic chord.

In 2005, Michelin Romania became a regional center for the Balkan area, coordinating production operations in Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia.  Also, Michelin has in Romania a mapping team, responsible for Romania’s green map, launched in 2008, in French and in 2011, in Romanian.

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On what concerns innovation, the group’s main development directions will be towards tires that will aid reduce the automobile’s fuel consumption, as well as tires that will become increasingly more difficult to puncture.

Figures concerning the group’s yearly results and expectations on the local market will be made public in August.

Corina Dumitrescu