Nexen to Build US R&D Facility

South Korea’s Nexen Tire plans to open an engineering research and development facility in northeast Ohio, most likely somewhere in the Akron area. The company has hired veteran engineers George Kamvouris and Gary Zolton to start the facility. Kamvouris was most recently with Continental Tire North America, while Zolton comes to Nexen from Denman Tire Corp.

In 2007, Nexen Tire America opened distribution centres in Atlanta, Chicago and Little Ferry, New Jersey, in addition to its existing facility in southern California. The tyremaker also began production at a second plant in Qingdao, China, with planned capacity of 6 million tyres by 2010. The company is considering sites in Ohio, but has not finalised a location. (Tire Review/Akron)