Michelin announced Tuesday the sale “by the end of 2022” of its activities in Russia, which represent 2% of the group’s sales, while specifying that this operation would have no impact on its financial objectives.
“After suspending its industrial activities in Russia on March 15, Michelin today notes the technical impossibility of their resumption,” the tire manufacturer said in a press release.
Michelin employs around 1,000 people in Russia, including 750 at the Davydovo plant, near Moscow. This site, opened in 2004, produces between 1.5 and 2 million tires per year, mainly for cars on the local market.
The group plans to transfer control of its tertiary and industrial operations to local management, which would ‘operate via a structure independent of Michelin’.
Michelin pointed to “supply difficulties in a lasting context of general uncertainty”, while the war continues in Ukraine and international sanctions against Russia are tightening. During the general meeting of the group on May 13, its CEO Florent Menegaux had notably mentioned the case of carbon black, a tire component from Russia, for which alternatives had to be found.
Michelin realizes in Russia 2% of its total sales, which amounted to 23.795 billion euros in 2021, and 1% of its world production of tires for passenger cars.
Faced with international sanctions affecting Russia, many companies have suspended or ceded their activities in the country, particularly in the automotive sector.
/ATS