France's Michelin plans US$510 mln plant in Guanajuato

French tire maker Michelin plans to build a US$510 million plant in central Mexico that will produce around 5 million tires a year and could be expanded to produce another 5 million annually by around 2020, documents showed.

The plant in the state of Guanajuato will begin production in 2017, and will produce passenger and light truck tires, mostly for the North American market but also for Europe and Asia, according to documents seen by Reuters.

Some of the production will be sold directly to customers as replacements, while others are destined for production lines of Mexico's growing auto sector.

Michelin did not immediately respond to a request for comment.