Hankook partners with Lanxess on HP tire R&D

Feb. 28, 2014

Hankook Tire Co. Ltd., the Seoul, South Korea-based parent company of Hankook Tire America Corp., has signed a memorandum of understanding for the formation of a strategic technological partnership with Lanxess, the world’s largest synthetic rubber supplier, to co-develop synthetic rubber technologies for high-performance tires.

Under this agreement, the two companies will jointly study the development of new high-performance synthetic rubber grades and applications, which will increase the performance of tires from early stages of product development.

Targeted at the fast-growing high-performance tire market, Hankook says this agreement builds upon an ongoing close partnership between Hankook Tire and Lanxess. The initial partnership began in 2008 for the supply of core materials for high-performance tires such as solution styrene butadiene rubber (S-SBR) and neodymium performance butadiene rubber (Nd-PBR).

The newly established technical partnership will strengthen the ties between the two companies and expand the collaboration areas in the development of core synthetic rubber solutions for high-performance tires.

The company says this form of technical partnership represents part of Hankook Tire’s continued R&D efforts. Coupled with the company’s investment for a new Central R&D Center and a Test Engineering Center in Korea, this additional R&D effort based on a far more interactive knowledge sharing with the partner company is expected to accelerate Hankook Tire’s pursuit to further advance its technological prowess beyond competition.

“Based on our proven technological excellence, Hankook Tire has been focusing on high-performance tire sector and has made continuous R&D and investment efforts as part of our pathway towards becoming a global top-tier tire company,” said Dr. Sang Ju Lee, senior vice president and head of Global R&D at Hankook Tire.

“Our continued R&D efforts with this technical partnership will further contribute to solidify our position as a global premium tire maker with even more advanced tire technology.”

"Lanxess has a strong reputation for sophisticated and customized R&D efforts and 'innovation' as its key driving force,” said Dr. Joachim Grub, head of the Lanxess Performance Butadiene Rubbers business unit.

“In this this new technical partnership, we will assist Hankook Tire to achieve a key position as a global tire company of high-quality products based on leading-edge technologies."

Lanxess provides high-performance synthetic rubbers to global leading tire companies. In October 2013, the company launched two new easy processing Nd-PBR rubber grades -- Buna Nd 22 EZ and Buna Nd 24 EZ -- aimed the fast-growing high-performance tires market, especially in Asia.

For more information visit www.hankooktire.com.

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