Hankook Tire Co. Ltd. has broken ground for its third plant in China, and sixth plant total, in Chongqing Liangjiang. The company previously signed a $954 million investment agreement on November 2010 (see Hankook’s sixth plant: Where will it be?). With an area of 5,705,000 square feet, the new plant will start operating by August 2012.
After full completion scheduled by the end of 2015, it is designated to produce 4,500 truck and bus radial tires and 30,000 passenger car radial tires per day. Overall production capacity will be 11.5 million tires annually, among which 1.6 million units are truck and bus tires.
“We have achieved about 20 percent market share of passenger car tires in China and this would not have been possible without the customers’ full trust and support to our company quality,” says Seung-Hwa Suh, Hankook Tire’s vice chairman and CEO. “We decided to build the third Chinese plant in Liangjiang New Area since it is the economic center and a leader in Western China. The new plant will help Hankook blend into Western China, and further consolidate and expand our advantage in the Chinese market.”
Hankook entered the China market in 1996 and in 1999 established two plants in Jiaxing Zhejiang and Huaian Jiangsu, with a total annual production capacity of 29 million tires. The company’s share on the Chinese passenger car market has risen to more than 20%. Sales of Hankook UHP tires to the Chinese market rose 57.3% in 2010.
