Hankook adding truck & bus tyre production to European plant

With an investment of KRW 758.95 billion (£466.12 million), Hankook Tire & Technology will add truck and bus radial production to its site in Rácalmás, Hungary. The company expects the new production line to be completed by 2027, with an initial capacity to produce around 800,000 tyres annually. The expansion will create approximately 450 new jobs.

Today’s decision by the Board of Directors at Hankook Tire & Technology reactivates plans that had previously been postponed due to the local business environment as well as the Covid-19 pandemic. On 26 March 2018, documents were submitted to the Board proposing a KRW 378.23 billion expansion of the plant in Hungary. This pre-revision plan called for an investment between 2018 and 2020 that would have resulted in a facility capable of producing an estimated 1,600 tyres per day. The line that will now be built is around 50 per cent larger, with a planned daily capacity of 2,380 units.

Hankook Tire & Technology’s Rácalmás site opened in 2007. Following the completion of a third phase of construction, the facility is equipped to produce 17 million passenger car and light truck tyres annually. The plant gained International Sustainability & Carbon Certification (ISCC) PLUS certification earlier this year. Hankook currently has eight production sites around the world with a global capacity total of about 102 million tyres per year.