The third quarter was good to Hankook Tire Co. The Seoul, South Korea-based tiremaker achieved a 536.4% increase in operating profits and a 26.4% increase in net sales over numbers achieved during the same period in 2008.
Hankook finished the quarter with 275 billion won in profit and sales of 1.44 trillion won.
In the U.S., Hankook's replacement tire sales jumped 18% over second quarter 2009 levels and was 21% ahead of sales numbers achieved during the same period in 2008, with ultra-high performance tires leading the way.
"The majority of our growth this year in the U.S. has come from our replacement business," says Hankook CEO and President Seung Hwa Suh. "Replacement sales have shown significant increases over the last three quarters, illustrating the trend that consumers are focusing on high value products."
Globally, Hankook's UHP tires have increased 18.2%. "In particular, Korean operations saw figures at 92.8% year-over-year, together with European nations at 32.9% year-over-year," according to Hankook officials.
