Some French Michelin tire factories will be shut down for a few weeks due to the decline in the global market in the sector, the group said on Tuesday, detailing information from Le Parisien. These shutdowns will initially concern specialty tires, by the end of 2024. The sites of Troyes (Aube, agricultural tires) and Puy-en-Velay (Haute-Loire, civil engineering) , will be stopped for around three weeks, with employees on partial unemployment, “to compensate for cyclical reductions in workload”, explained Michelin.
As for car tires, the subject of the drop in activity was also “raised on several occasions” on the sites of Cholet (Maine-et-Loire), Vannes (Morbihan), where 370 employees work, and Tours ( Indre-et-Loire), which manufacture semi-finished products and tires, the group said. “For many months, these sites have experienced declines in activity due to structural load problems. The group, in conjunction with the sites and social partners, is working to find solutions,” according to the company.
“We are waiting for announcements of closures in Vannes”
These pauses are linked to the “slowdown in the global economy in general, especially in the automotive sector where manufacturers’ sales are down by 20% to 25%,” declared Michelin CEO Florent Menegaux to Le Parisien. . “We are obliged to adapt our production to the circumstances. But we must distinguish the situation and the structure. We never close a site for economic reasons,” he explained.
We have triggered a right of alert on these three factories. These three sites are particularly in danger
According to Romain Baciak, CGT Michelin general secretary, cited by France 3, three French sites are threatened: “Today in France, there remain 16,000 employees. We are awaiting closure announcements in Vannes, Cholet and Tours. We have triggered a right of alert on these three factories. These three sites are particularly in danger.” José Tarantini, CFE-CGC central union delegate, confirms that “Vannes and Tours are the most affected sites. We sense a global atmosphere of worry and wait-and-see. Employees expect announcements and it’s never good to live in this uncertainty.” Christophe Villate, CGT delegate for the Breton site, told Le Télégramme “of a great fear that the Vannes site will close” and deplores “the lack of information from Michelin management”.
Fifty departures from Vannes since the start of the year
An extraordinary social and economic committee (CSE) was held on Wednesday morning at the group’s headquarters in Clermont-Ferrand, with management and staff representatives. No information has been filtered at the moment. On this occasion, the unions took note of a report from an accounting firm, commissioned as part of the economic alert procedure, in order to better assess the difficulties and prospects of the three factories.
According to this report, the Vannes site lost 28% of its workforce between 2019 and 2024, or 112 fewer employees. “There have been around fifty departures since the start of the year. There are only around 300 of us left in Vannes, whereas the factory employed 900 people when I started working there in 1997,” says Christophe Villate. According to the unions, the outlook is poor for the Vannes site which lost “40% of its production between 2021 and 2025”. “Regarding Vannes, the drop is structural and the other metal reinforcement factories in Europe are also underloaded, there is no possibility of volume recovery,” this report would indicate.
