Kumho christens Korean R&D center

ERJ staff report (TB)

Tire Business report

Yongin City, South Korea — Kumho Tire Co. Inc. has opened a $67 million (€51 million) research and development centre in Yongin City, where it will house about 600 R&D personnel from South Korea and abroad.

Kumho first broke ground on the 246,575-sq.-ft. (22908 sq.m) facility in May 2008, with a projected finishing date of year-end 2009. Kumho did not comment on the reasons for the delayed opening.

The new centre houses "industry-leading" supercomputers, physical testing equipment, chemical and instrumental analysis equipment, performance research equipment and other, associated resources, Kumho said, shared in separate research and testing buildings.

"The most sure way of becoming a global tire company is to secure world-class technical prowess," said Kumho Tires CEO Kim Chang-Kyu at the facility's opening. Kumho will "continue to strive to improve its competitive power with expansion of overseas factories and increasing OE supplies to overseas automobile makers, with the completion of the new R&D Centre," he added.

The Yongin city area is considered an automotive R&D hub — home also to the technology research institutes of Hyundai KIA Motors, Renault Samsung and Hyundai Mobis, among others, Kumho said.

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Article from Tire Business