Hankook Announces Sixth Global Manufacturing Plant in China

Hankook has announced that it will build its sixth global manufacturing plant in Liang Jiang Xin Qu in the Chongqing Municipal of China, investing US$954 million in the project, which will cover approximately 53,000 sqm. It will break ground in the first quarter of 2011 and is expected to be completed by the end of 2015. Upon completion, the plant will produce a total number of 11.5 million passenger car and truck and bus tyres, generating sales of US$1 billion annually, according to the company. It will also create about 4,600 new jobs in the region.

The newest plant, Hankook’s third in China, is expected to solidify its current global position, particularly in the Chinese market, boosting its production scale to become the world’s fifth largest tyre company within a few years, the Korean manufacturer stated. The agreement indicates the company’s ongoing growth strategy to establish a solid production platform, a company statement said.

“Hankook Tire is one of the world’s most dynamically growing tyre companies,” said Seung Hwa Suh, vice chairman & CEO. “With the establishment of Hankook Tire’s global sixth plant, Hankook Tire has taken another step towards our goal to strengthen our global foothold and to become a leading global tire company. We will continue to seek for future investment opportunities in order to improve our production capacity and productivity, and will also show our commitment to the local communities.”
 
Currently, Hankook Tire is operating five production facilities around the globe – two in Korea (Geumsan and Daejeon), two in China (Jiaxing and Jiangsu), and one in Hungary (Racalmas) – at 100 per cent capacity since the third quarter of last year. The five plants have a total production capacity of 87 million units per year. With an additional sixth plant, the production capacity is expected to increase to around 100 million units per year.

Hankook says it has achieved an annual sales growth rate of 13.9 per cent over the past 10 years, and aims to become the fifth-biggest player in the global tyre industry, recording a global EBITDA of US$1 billion, and producing 100 million tyres per year by 2014, positioning itself within the premium quality segment.

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