South Korea’s Hankook Tire to build first plant in the US to expand global production

Source:Xinhua Published: 2013-10-14 23:33:01

Hankook Tire, the world's seventh-largest tire maker by revenue, said Monday that it will set up its first manufacturing facility in the US to expand production and become one of the world's top-tier tire companies.

Hankook will invest a total of $800 million to build its first factory in the US, which is expected to have an annual capacity of 11 million tires, the South Korean company said in a statement.

The company plans to break ground on the new plant by the end of 2014 and begin operations in 2016.

Upon the factory's completion, Hankook's annual production capacity will top the 100 million mark. It currently produces around 94 million units at its plants in South Korea, China, Indonesia and Hungary.

"The new plant in the US will further strengthen our well-balanced global production portfolio," said Suh Seung-hwa, vice chairman and chief executive of Hankook Tire.

The new plant will be located in the US state of Tennessee, which is considered to be an ideal plant location due to an extensive transportation network comprising rail, plane and interstate highway links.



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