Czech PM visits Nexen’s Changnyeong plant

Some nine months after his government signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Nexen Tyre on the construction of a new factory, Czech Republic Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka visited Nexen Tyre’s Changnyeong plant during an official state visit to South Korea. “We are pleased to welcome Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka to Nexen Tyre,” stated Nexen Tyre chairman Kang Byung-Joong during today’s plant inspection. “We look forward to further cementing our partnership with the Czech government and to set up the best tyre manufacturing facility with advanced technology in Europe.”

Nexen Tyre signed the MoU agreement with the Czech government in June 2014. The agreement covers the erection of new facility on a 650,000 square metre greenfield site in Zatec, in the country’s northwest. Approximately €829 million will be invested in the project. Nexen comments that the plant’s location is not only advantageous for supplying neighbouring Germany and other Western European markets such as France and the UK – the tyre maker’s original equipment ambitions will also be facilitated by the presence of some 30 car manufacturing plants within a 400 kilometre radius of Zatec.

Operations in Zatec are expected to commence in 2018 and capacity will incrementally grow to over 12 million pieces a year. It will be Nexen Tyre’s fourth facility worldwide.