European Distribution Centre in Rotterdam Opened By Hankook

Hankook has in the past announced on more than one occasion its intention to improve capacity and focus chiefly on Europe. A concrete decision has not yet been made, Jung Rak Chey (Managing Director Europe Regional H.Q.

) told the press in Rotterdam in March. He thinks that a factory in Europe seems most likely, but locations in North America or acquisitions in South East Asia are possibilities. Hankook could achieve further successes in European original equipment – the company is already a supplier for the Ford Transit – and Jung Rak Chey talks of negotiations with Volvo and Volkswagen.

If a supplier does not have a factory near the customer, then the logistics have to be so efficient that it should seem that such a factory exists. The European Distribution Centre (EDC) opened in Rotterdam is impressive in size, and Hankook itself calls it a “milestone in the company’s history”. Capacity of the warehouse is 300,000 passenger car tyres, 20,000 light truck tyres, and 20,000 truck/bus tyres.

Also, 250,000 car batteries are on storage, some of which were already filled in Korea but a filling station also exists in the EDC. Hankook’s target is to deliver its customers with three million tyres and one million batteries annually from the EDC. The EDC will supply 35 countries, from Finland to Portugal, from Iceland to Russia.