Michelin reaffirms 10-percent target

By Sylviane de Saint-Seine, Automotive News Europe.

Paris-Michelin CEO Edouard Michelin said the French tyre maker is on track for an operating profit margin of 10 percent in 2005.

Michelin's operating margin was 7.8 percent in 2002. In 1993, it was 3.2 percent.

“We set ourselves an operating margin of 10 percent as an average over the cycle,” Edouard Michelin told a shareholders' information meeting.

A typical cycle in the tyre industry is about five years.