(Montreal) Michelin factories are operating at around 80% to 85% of their capacity, confirms Florent Menegaux, the president of the French multinational, who met La Presse Canadienne during a recent visit to Montreal. “It’s a problem we have across the world. ”
When the president visited the company’s facilities in Laval and Magog for the first time since the start of the pandemic, managers all told him that difficulty in recruiting was an issue. “It’s really difficult to recruit. I saw all these signs on the side of the highway “we are hiring”. We are experiencing the same difficulty as businesses across the country. ”
The unfilled positions in the company in Canada represent approximately “7% of the total or less, according to the installations”, specifies a spokesperson of the company after the interview.
Previously, Michelin never published its job offers for its two factories in Nova Scotia, because it received more applications than necessary, gives Mr. Menegaux as an example. The company has started advertising its recruiting needs because it only receives half of the applications it would need. “This situation is completely new, the leader is surprised. Normally, the number of applications received greatly exceeds our needs. ”
Supply Chain
Things are not simpler on the side of the supply chain which is a “total mess”, deplores the president of the multinational present in 170 countries. “There is no shortage of rubber for us, but there is a shortage of boats, containers, trucks and drivers. ”
“Normally” Michelin has to make between one or two emergency interventions in the supply chain every two months. “Now it’s 10 to 15 a day. We need to send fabrics by airmail, because our supplier can’t ship it to us on time. ”
Some boats do not even make the stops at the ports that were planned, continues the leader. All these complications have led to an explosion in transport costs, observes Mr. Menegaux. Shipping a container from the United States to China cost an average of $ 2,400. Today that price is $ 13,000.
Sustainable tires thanks to Quebec
Michelin’s Quebec activities play a central role in the development of sustainable tires. Michelin wants 100% of the content of its tires and tracks to come from sustainable materials (natural or recycled).
Acquired in 2018 for US $ 1.7 billion, the off-road tire specialist Camso is ahead of the other divisions of the French multinational in this regard.
At the moment, nearly 28% of the composition of Michelin’s tire products is made from sustainable materials, says Menegaux. At Camso, this threshold is 52%. Meanwhile, Michelin wants to reach the 40% threshold by 2030. This threshold should be 60% in 2030 for Camso. “We want to push them to go even faster [que l’ensemble du groupe]. ”
Mr. Menegaux assures us that the integration of Camso is going “very well”. The acquisition is now responsible for all of Michelin’s global activities in off-road tire products (construction, agriculture and military sectors, in particular) from its head office in Magog. “Apart from a few small hitches with information technology, it went relatively smoothly. ”
The company is also working with Montreal-based Pyrowave to reduce its environmental footprint. Pyrowave has developed a process that allows polystyrene (plastic) to be recycled into styrene monomer, “which can be reused in our tires”.
If Michelin wants to reduce its environmental footprint, its president affirms that it is illusory to advocate a reduction in mobility to achieve this objective. “The number of vehicles on the road is expected to double within 20 years, as the vehicle fleet in developing countries is smaller than in Canada. These people have to travel. Mobility is a fundamental human right. ”