Tire manufacturer Michelin announced plans to pause production at four factories in Spain from January 20 to January 21 due to delays in the delivery of raw materials caused by the ongoing crisis in the Red Sea.
According to Reuters, Michelin had previously suspended work shifts at its Spanish plants during the weekend of January 13 due to longer delivery times of the raw materials, that arrive by sea from Asia, needed to produce rubber.
Michelin said that its Spanish facilities are the company’s second-largest rubber producers, but the organization explained that those factories had a large enough stock of rubber to cope with the ongoing crisis in the Red Sea while it maintains its supplies of raw materials.
Michelin’s production pause is similar to the moves recently made by Tesla and Geely-owned Volvo Car, which both announced last week that they were pausing manufacturing operations in some parts of Europe due to a shortage of components.
The pause comes just days after the U.K. and the U.S. launched a series of attacks against Houthis in Yemen, whose attacks on international ships since December have caused many vessels to be diverted to other shipping routes. Dozens of shipping lines have rerouted their vessels away from the Red Sea, opting instead to have them travel around the Cape of Good Hope in Africa, causing delays of up to ten days for some lines.
