Hankook Tire Co. Ltd. has announced it will be investing $353 million in a new passenger, bus and truck tire manufacturing plant in Bekasi, Indonesia. More than 50% of the plant’s capacity will be earmarked for the North American market.
The large-scale global production facility, to be located in Southeast Asia near Jakarta, will enable the company to achieve its goal of becoming a leading global tire company by 2014, the company states. Hankook expects its annual global production capability to reach 100 million units that same year.
“The addition of a plant in Indonesia will directly benefit the U.S. market,” says Soo Il Lee, president of Hankook Tire America Corp. “Committing approximately 50% of the plant’s expected capacity for passenger and light truck tires for North America will help us further meet the growing demand for our high-quality products in the U.S. and Canada.”
Hankook expects to break ground on the new manufacturing facility in the third quarter of 2011. The construction is expected to be complete by September 2014, rolling out 6 million tires a year. The plant location and design will allow Hankook the option of making additional investments in the facility to meet future needs, the company says.
The construction site will span over a 6.4 million square foot area and has convenient access to export logistics, as well as other production infrastructure resources such as electricity and workforce.
“Hankook Tire continues its efforts to develop new growth engines through an aggressive approach in raising investment efficiency and productivity,” says Seung Hwa Suh, vice chairman and CEO. “We are glad to respond to our fast-growing reputation for quality around the globe by mobilizing our investment resources to build large-scale and top-notch production facilities.”
Currently, Hankook Tire has five production facilities around the globe. In November, the company announced upcoming expansion to its Hungarian factory and plans to build an additional plant in China. The new plant in China will be located in Liang Jiang Xin Qu of Chongqing Municipal, which is southwest of China’s biggest industrial and commercial center. It will break ground in the first quarter of 2011 and is expected to be completed by the end of 2015. Upon completion, this plant will produce approximately 11.5 million passenger car, truck and bus tires.
