Hankook Tire & Technology shares that its Hankook Technodome research institute is collaborating to develop eco-friendly manufacturing technologies as part of a project led by South Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE). The aim is to develop technology for reusing discarded tyre moulds in the manufacture of new, reusable moulds.
On 8 November, China’s Ministry of Commerce announced that it would continue to impose anti-dumping duties on Acrylonitrile-butadiene rubber (NBR) originating in South Korea and Japan. The Ministry of Commerce ruled that “if the anti-dumping measures are terminated, the dumping of imported nitrile rubber originating in South Korea and Japan to China may continue or reoccur, and the damage to China’s NBR product industry may continue or reoccur”.
Some 180 days after signing a memorandum of understanding with Hahn & Company in May, on 31 October Hankook & Company Group (formerly Hankook Tire Group) entered into share purchase agreements for the acquisition of Hanon Systems Co. Ltd. The company has executed the acquisition through its core business, Hankook Tire & Technology (Hankook Tire), and now holds a 54.77 per cent stake in Hanon Systems.
Hankook Tire & Technology’s tyre plants in Geumsan, South Korea, and Tennessee, USA are currently home to field tests of augmented reality technology developed by Hankook & Company subsidiary Model Solution. The total hardware platform company now aims to extend its competencies through an agreement signed with an artificial intelligence (AI) and extended reality (XR) technology company Virnect. This will see the two partners collaborating to research and develop smart goggles at Model Solution’s facility in Bucheon, South Korea.
CDP Carbon Management Sector Honors for Hankook Tire & Technology (Hankook Tire). The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) Korea Committee hosted its Climate Change and Water Security Awards on 13 March. Based upon the CDP Climate Change Response Project’s evaluation of more than 23,000 global companies, the Committee acknowledged Hankook Tire within the Consumer Discretionary awards category. The tyre maker achieved an A- rating in the evaluation, one of only 25 Korean companies achieving this distinction.
The inaugural meeting of the Tire-to-Tire Circular Economy Model consortium took place at Hankook Tire & Technology’s Technodome facility in Daejeon, South Korea on 1 November. The Hankook Tire-initiated consortium aims to create a sustainable business model for end-of-life tyres in Korea by “designing innovative upcycling processes” for turning them into new tyres.
Half a year after a major fire caused extensive damage to its tyre factory in Daejeon, South Korea, Hankook Tire & Technology has recommenced some tyre production within the facility. In a disclosure to the Korea Exchange (KRX), the company reports that it approved the resumption of production at the site’s Plant 1 facility on 1 September 2023.
Korean waste treatment and raw material recycling company LD Carbon and Switzerland’s Tyre Recycling Solutions (TRS) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to set up a facility in South Korea. This plant will process end-of-life tyres (ELTs) into TyreXol rubber powders using the TRS Water Pulse process. LD Carbon will utilise ELTs not processed into TyreXol to produce tyre pyrolysis oil and recovered carbon black products whose quality has already passed various global tyre manufacturers’ assurance tests for commercial adoptions.
Plans for two Saudi Arabia tyre factory projects were announced during 2022. In January 2022, Black Arrow Tire Company (Blatco) agreed to a tyre factory construction joint venture with Kumho. By June 2022, Kingdom Tyres, which describes itself as Saudi’s largest tyre producer, signed a provisional investment agreement with the Royal Commission for Jubail & Yanbu. Here Tyres & Accessories considers the latest developments with both projects and asks if the market is big enough for both factories?
Hankook Tire & Technology reports increasing its revenue and operating profit in Q2 2023 despite a difficult business environment. Revenues were up 11 per cent year-on-year to KRW 2.2634 trillion (£1.37 billion, US$1.77 million), and operating profit jumped 41.6 per cent to KRW 248.2 billion (£150.41 million, $194.0 million). At 11.0 per cent, operating margin was 2.4 percentage points higher than in Q2 2022.
Nexen Tire has joined the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), an international initiative for sustainable and responsible corporate management. By signing on to the UNGC, the Korean tyre maker commits to aligning its actions with ten sustainability principles and pledges to contribute to the UNGC’s Sustainable Development Goals.
Fire broke out at Hankook Tire and Technology’s Daejeon factory at 22:09 local time on Sunday 12 March. 11 people were injured, 10 Hankook staff members and one firefighter. The injuries are said to relate to smoke inhalation and are not described as serious. Now, as a result of the fire, production has been halted for an indefinite period. Nevertheless, staff say they are making every effort to get the factory operational again.
Hankook Tire & Technology has become a KRW 3 billion (£1.9 million) pre-Series A investor in South Korean used car e-commerce platform ‘Carmerce’. The tyre maker and start-up signed an investment contract at Hankook & Company’s headquarters on 28 February.
LD Carbon is on the brink of closing a 10-year tyre pyrolysis oil contract with a South Korean oil firm. Tyres & Accessories understands that the 10-year deal will be worth around $25 million a year, making the whole contract worth around $250 million.
The European passenger car and light truck tyre (PCLT) import market recovered substantially from its bout of Long Covid in the second half of 2022 as the benefits of local versus remote production took an unexpected hit. A perfect storm of significantly lower freight costs and high European energy costs nudged the dial on the relative competitiveness of imports and domestic PCLT tyre production in the second half of 2022. Looking at the European PCLT tyre market through the prism of imports, leading sector analyst Astutus Research shares with Tyres & Accessories its data demonstrating the effects of a rapidly changing market context. The latest Astutus Research briefing, ‘Supply Dynamics in the European PCLT Tire Industry to 2028’, priced at £995 is available now on Tyrepress.
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Astutus Research