From Tire Review

According to a Nov. 22 Dow Jones report, Groupe Michelin plans to make inroads “into the lower end of the U.S. tire market,” a segment the tiremaker sees as being covered by Chinese tiremakers.

Michelin CEO Michel Rollier told a meeting of European auto executives that it is “considering going it alone after an initial plan to enter the segment with then partner Hankook Tire Co. fell through,” the report

said.

Rollier said that 50 percent of the U.S. tire market is occupied by Tier 2 or Tier 3 brands “that don’t offer the quality of products made by market

leaders Michelin, Bridgestone and Goodyear,” the report said.

"This isn’t a sector that we can ignore," Rollier said. "I think we’ll invest in this activity by ourselves.”

Yet, Rollier offered no information on how the tiremaker planned to “invest in this activity.”