Kumho Plans to Lift Capacity by One Fifth

Plans are afoot to increase Kumho Tire’s global capacity by 20 per cent in the coming year. The company’s CEO and president, Dr. Sael Chul Oh, has commented that this growth would be fulfilled in part by the Korean tyremaker’s operations in China; two of Kumho’s three established plants in the country are scheduled for expansion. A fourth facility is also currently being built in China.

In 2006 Kumho had a global capacity of 45.3 million tyres, and plans to increase this to 56.4 million by 2008 appear to have been met and surpassed ahead of schedule, with the manufacturer reported to possess a current worldwide capacity of 60 million units, through which it generates US$12 billion in annual tyre sales across 180 countries.

A fifth factory in China is also a possibility, said Oh. Kumho has in recent years undertaken a programme of reducing capacity at its less profitable Korean plants and increasing it elsewhere. Production in China is not only less expensive in China, it is also more profitable per man hour – Kumho’s Chinese plants produce 72 kilograms per man hour opposed to an hourly output of 52 kilograms in Korea.