The Hindu Business Line : Michelin project not cancelled, `only postponed'

Asserting this in an interaction with this correspondent here on Sunday, Mr Herve Dub, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Michelin India Tyres Private Ltd, said nothing on the ground had changed since it had made an announcement nine months ago on the issue after buying out Apollo Tyres in the joint venture.

"There is no precise plan at the moment," Mr Dub said.

He was unwilling to hazard any guess on when Michelin production base would come into being in India.

Following the buy-out of Apollo Tyres, Michelin India Tyres Private Ltd has become a fully owned outfit of Michelin Group.

Mr Dub was here to inaugurate Michelin's first Priority Partner Outlet (Lal Enterprises). Michelin has similar Priority Partner Outlets in Mumbai, Pune, Kochi and Coimbatore.

The Indian tyre field was dominated by bias market, comprising close to 99 per cent the tyre industry.

Michelin, on the other hand, is a dominant player in the radial segment.

Mr Dub felt that Michelin's decision on production base would also have to take into account the pace of `radialisation' of the Indian tyre industry.

Bias tyres

"We need a critical volume," he said, pointing to Michelin's aggressive promotion of radial tyres in India. "India is one of the kinds to have 99 per cent bias market," he said. He cited the road conditions, overloading of trucks, poor upkeep of trucks and the structure of truck ownership among the reasons for the dominance of Indian market by bias tyres.

Fielding a range of questions, Mr Dub said: "India is an important market." Michelin wished to grow steadily in India. Though the French major was present only in the replacement space of the passenger car market, it was keen to enter the OEM (original equipment manufacturer) segment. "We are in discussions with some OEMs," he said. "There will be some good news on this front in 12 months," he added.

The CEO said Michelin had strong links with OEMs globally. He expected this to come in handy for it to break into the Indian OEM space. To a question, he said there was room for more players though the competition in Indian tyre industry had turned tough.

In the bus segment, Michelin is the OEM supplier to Volvo's Mark II vehicles. The company, he said, had opened up parleys with some truck makers to become OEM supplier.

Currently, Michelin was importing tyres from its Chinese plant to service the truck and bus markets in India. For passenger cars, the tyres were sourced from its facilities in Thailand, he added.