Production starts at Hankook’s Chongqing plant
According to a statement released by Hankook Tire, production has commenced at the company’s Liang Jiang Xin Qu factory in China’s Chongqing region. The tyre maker writes that the plant’s initial production capacity goal of 2,400 tyres a day is expected to be reached by mid-2013; upon breaking ground at the factory site in May 2011, Hankook said it aimed to produce 4,500 truck and bus radials and 30,000 passenger car radials a day in Chongqing by the end of 2015.
Total investment in the project will amount to US$954 million, Hankook shares. OEM customers in the Chongqing region will be key recipients of the tyres produced at the new plant.
Hankook’s two existing Chinese factories, which are located in Jiaxin, Jiangsu Province and Hunan, Zhejiang Province, have a combined annual production capacity of some 30 million tyres. According to Korea’s Yonhap news, Hankook officials report that sales in China now account for nearly 18 per cent of the company’s total revenue. Hankook Tire’s sales there exceeded KRW 1 trillion (£595 million) in 2012, and the tyre maker currently holds a 15 per cent share of the market; Yonhap shares that Hankook competes “closely” with Goodyear Tire & Rubber for the position of second-largest tyre seller. The top slot is currently occupied by the Michelin Group, which has an 18 per cent share of the Chinese tyre market.
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