Michelin said it would replace only 3,500 of the 5,000 French workers expected to leave or retire by 2021, as it cuts 970 positions at its Clermont Ferrand base and hundreds more in the rest of the country.

A further 450 jobs will be eliminated in the United States, the company said. In total, the job cuts amount to about 1.8 percent of the group's global workforce.

Alongside the cutbacks, the company said its activities will be restructured under eight operational functions such as supply chain and marketing and sales, across 10 newly defined business regions, in a move designed to encourage stronger performance.

Michelin said it would take an unspecified restructuring charge in its 2017 accounts.

(Reporting by Laurence Frost; Editing by Susan Fenton)