8 Jun 2006
Jiaxing, China - Hankook Tire Co. Ltd. is boosting its presence in China, opening a research and development centre, expanding capacity at its two existing plants and extending its sales network.
Hankook, which claims a 25-percent share of the Chinese replacement passenger tyre market, recently opened the R&D centre to help it develop products optimised for the Chinese market and provide original equipment support to global car makers operating in China.
Hankook built the centre on a 463,000-sq.-ft (43 000 m2) plot of land near its Jiaxing plant. It did not quantify its investment in the centre, which employs 90 technicians.
In addition, Hankook said it intends to expand the Jiaxing plant by an undisclosed amount during the second half of 2006; the firm only recently brought on stream an expansion there which brought annual capacity to 2.5 million units.
The newly disclosed expansion project will boost the firm's annual production capacity in China to 28 million units at plants in Jiaxing and Jiangsu.
Much of the output from the Jiaxing expansion is earmarked for OE customers. Hankook said it is the biggest OE supplier in China.
Hankook said its Chinese operations recorded $560 million in sales and $78 million in operating profits last year.
From Rubber & Plastics News (A Crain publication)
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