On Wednesday, Michelin raised its 2023 targets despite a less favorable market scenario, thanks to price increases in the first half of the year and as the company anticipates an easing of raw material costs over the remainder of the year.

"In the second half of the year, we'll start to benefit from a kind of deflation on raw materials, on shipping, and probably from energy costs slightly lower than in 2022 (...) which will help us, in the same way that they penalized us in 2021 and early 2022, they help us when we come out of the period of rising prices," Michelin CFO Yves Chapot told Reuters.

The Clermont-Ferrand-based group is now targeting segment operating income at constant exchange rates in excess of 3.4 billion euros this year, compared with 3.2 billion euros previously.

Michelin is also targeting free cash flow before acquisitions of over 2 billion euros, compared with 1.6 billion euros previously.

On Wednesday, the Group also reported a 5.9% increase in second-half sales, to €14.08 billion.

(Written by Nathan Vifflin, with Gilles Guillaume in Paris, edited by Kate Entringer)