Hankook Tire has donated KRW 1.05 billion (approximately £600,000) to the “Campaign for Sharing Hope 2014” programme run by South Korean charity Community Chest of Korea. The company participated in a fundraising event held in Seoul on 30 December; Hankook has taken part in this event since 2003.
On 2 January, Kumho Tire announced the domestic market launch of its first self-sealing tyre. The company’s ‘K-Seal’ technology has been introduced on the Kumho Majesty Solus range and is available in three sizes – 275/40ZR19 XL 105W, 245/45ZR19 XL 102W and 235/45ZR17 XL 97W. These tyres are capable of self-sealing tread punctures of up to five millimetres in diameter.
Analysts at TechSci Research have published a new report highlighting the growth potential of the South Korean tyre market. According to the report entitled “South Korea Tyre Market Forecast & Opportunities, 2018”, the tyre market in South Korea is expected to grow at the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5 per cent between 2013 and 2018 in terms of sales revenue.
On the eve of EU-South Korea summit (7 November) the European automotive industry released a statement calling for more to be done to dismantle barriers to trade in South Korea.
Czech Republic-based firm CODA Development is seeking licensees within the tyre industry for its patented Self Inflating Tire (SIT). The company says it will “immediately offer licenses to interested parties wanting to integrate SIT into their production lines.”
The 2014 Chevy Spark EV, now on sale in the US states of California and Oregon and scheduled for release into some European markets, Canada and South Korea, is being supplied with Bridgestone’s Ecopia EP150 tyres as original equipment. Bridgestone says the 140hp 119 combined miles-per-gallon equivalent (MPGe) compact car is fitted with Ecopia EP150 tyres manufactured at its Hikone plant in Japan; size 185/55R15 82T tyres will be mounted on the front wheels and size 195/55R15 85T on the rear.
Hankook Tire Co. is scouting potential sites in South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama for its planned US tyre plant, according to US news sources.
US publication Tire Review reports that Northwestern Mississippi and western Tennessee are “abuzz with rumours over what automotive or tyre company plans to build a significant production facility in the region.” Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant has called the state legislature into a special session on 26 April to consider a batch of economic incentives to lure a company to the state, and Tire Review says that a local newspaper describes the company in question as being a “Japanese” tyre company that wants to build a plant there.
Tyre manufacturer Hankook has unveiled plans for the construction of the company’s new central R&D facility in Korea. The centre, covering the total area of around 100,000 m², will be located at Daedeok Innopolis, South Korea’s premier research complex located in Daejeon, about 150 km south of Seoul. The construction of the new facility is projected to be completed by the end of 2015.
Czech Republic-based company Coda Development s.r.o., inventor of the Self Inflating Tire (SIT), winner of the Tire Technology of the Year award at the 2009 Tire Technology Expo, has signed a commercial licence agreement with an Asian tyre maker, and says it has already generated its first revenues. Although Coda Development has not named its new industry partner, it refers to the company as a “major” tyre producer. The contract grants rights to manufacture and sell SIT technology in specific territories of Asia.
While work on Kumho Tire’s greenfield project in the US is still on hold, the long wait to restart may soon be over. Georgia-based television station 13WMAZ reports Macon-Bibb County Industrial Authority chairman Clifford Whitby as saying “we are getting very close to be able an announce a date when Kumho will be able to start construction.”
In a disclosure submitted to the Korea Stock Exchange, Kumho Tire reports that the strike announced on 16 August is already over. The tyre maker says normal production resumed at both its Gwangju and Gokseong plants in South Korea on 17 August. Kumho Tire shares rose 3.6 per cent following this announcement.
Britain may never have been the first name you thought of when jotting down a list of the world’s top taekwondo nations, but team GB Taekwondo’s performance at the London Olympics shows we pack a powerful kick. Kumho Tyres, as official partner of GB Taekwondo, has congratulated the team for Jade Jones’ gold and Lutalo Muhammad’s bronze at the recent games.
Unionised workers at Kumho Tire’s Gwangju and Gokseong factories in South Korea have gone on strike, the Yonhap News Agency reports. According to Yonhap, the workers’ union said a general strike began on 16 August in order to secure higher wages; a walkout took place in the Gwangju plant at 6:30am and half an hour later in Gokseong. The news service shares that the strike follows the end of a union-led partial walkout by 3,100 workers that lasted a month and also centred on wage and “other outstanding differences.”
It’s sometimes said that good employees are worth their weight in gold, and at Continental this may well be literally the case. The German tyre maker and automotive component supplier encourages those working at its 126 global locations to submit ideas on how efficiency and cost effectiveness can be boosted, and last year some 310,000 of these employee-driven suggestions were implemented. These ideas, says Continental, saved the company almost 120 million euros.
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