Paris – Michelin has increased its capital share-holding in natural rubber supplier Societe Internationale De Plantations d’Heveas (SIPH) to around 24 percent, from 20 percent previously, SIPH announced 19 July.
The shares-purchase was through Swiss-based Compagnie Financière Michelin (CFM), said a 19 July announcement by SIPH, whose majority (55 percent) shareholder is Groupe Sifca of the Ivory Coast.
Michelin is one of the largest customers of SIPH, which produces and processes NR for industrial use, managing over 40,0000 hectares of mature rubber trees.
The rubber company’s current production capacity is 250 kilotonnes spread over Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria and Liberia.
SIPH recently announced that it is, this year, investing around €19 million in its plantation and industrial capacities.
Some analysts have suggested that the share-purchase signal’s a belief at Michelin that NR prices are now recovering from their five-year slump.
