SC manufacturing giant nets $1.2 billion in first half of year despite COVID slowdowns
Michelin, the second largest tire manufacturer in the world following Bridgestone, released its first-half 2021 financial earnings on July 26.
Michelin is a French international company, with U.S. headquarters in Greenville. The company’s North American division employs more than 20,000 employees and operates 20 major manufacturing plants in the U.S., seven of which are located in South Carolina, according to the company’s website.
Since 1975, Michelin has invested more than $5 billion in the state of South Carolina, according to the company’s website.
The company reported a net income of over $1 billion euros, or close to $1.2 billion U.S. dollars in the first half of its financial year. At the same time in 2020, the company reported a loss of more than $150 million, according to the company’s financial reports.
“As markets continued to recover, the Michelin Group had a very good first half. These solid results should not overshadow the persistent impact of the health crisis, which is causing major disruptions, particularly in the supply chain. I would therefore like to personally thank the Michelin teams for their unwavering commitment to enabling our Group to sustain its leadership in our tire businesses and to continue deploying our sustainable growth strategy,” said CEO Florent Menegaux in a press release.
Throughout the first half of 2021, Michelin has reported an almost 20% increase in sales, despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
However, the company reports that they were hurt by the continued weakness of the U.S. dollar to the euro. (At the time of writing, 1 euro is equal to 1.18 U.S. dollars.)
Looking forward to the remainder of 2021, Michelin stated it expects the sharp increase in demand to slow and for operations to continue to be slowed by global supply chain disruptions. The company’s yearly figures have been adjusted upwards to account for its better-than expected first half.
