France-based Michelin, the world leading tyre manufacturer, announced Friday a 12.6-percent increase in sales volume during the first half of 2011.
The result is in line with the group's target and it is now expecting an "ongoing market growth" for the second half.
Thanks to the rising worldwide demand for tires "substantially in all regions", the group's net sales grew by 21 percent to 10.1 billion euros (14.4 billion U.S. dollars) with operation income perched at 971 million euros (1,387 million US dollars), up by 18 percent compared with first-half 2010, according to the first half year results posted on the company's website.
Given the group's geographic presence minimizing currency effect and its pricing policy offsetting the impact of higher raw material prices, its net income over the first half of this year surged by 32 percent to 667 million euros (952.9 million U.S. dollars).
Looking into the next half of the year, Michelin expected "an ongoing market growth at a pace closer to long-term trends," and estimated about 8 percent growth in sales volumes for the full year.
"Michelin reaffirms its objective of reporting higher operating income in 2011," the group said while expected temporarily negative free cash flow in 2011 as raw material prices keep on growing and the group is carrying on a faster deployment of capital expenditure programs.
