Hankook adding €32m tire, raw materials storage at Hungarian plant

Rácalmás, Hungary – Hankook Tire is building an internal warehouse base at its production facility in Racalmas to improve services and optimise processes. 

Construction work started this autumn on the €32-million warehouse, which will be used for storing raw materials and finished tires, said Hankook in a 15 Nov statement.

Set to start operation within a year, the investment is expected to “further improve raw material supply, increase its security and make the process more efficient.”

According to Hankook, currently 88% of finished tires in Racalmas are stored in the factory's on-site warehouse, while the remainder and "a significant proportion" of incoming raw materials are stored off-site. 

The new investment includes a planned unit, with a floor area of around 13,000 square metres, for the storage of raw materials such as chemicals, textile and steel wires, carbon black, silica and block rubber raw materials.

Another building will increase the finished tire storage capacity of the plant to 1.5 million tires with a floor area of 20,000 square metres. 

The improvements, Hankook said, will enable the company to meet its current storage needs in-house without the need for outsourced services. 

It will also reduce transportation activities ‘significantly’, lowering the negative environmental impact of road transport operations.

"This investment improves our services while simplifying workflows,” said Hyung Yun Kim, managing director of Hankook Tire Hungary Ltd.

Storing more raw materials for production on site will be “a big step forward” for the Racalmas plant and will make the work of employees easier, he added. 

The new warehouse will also make deliveries more practical as finished tires are storied on-site.

“I strongly believe in this new warehouse project and I know that… it will further add to our competitiveness and high level of efficiency," said the managing director. 

Operational since 2006, the Racalmas factory manufactures 16.2 million units of passenger car tires per year and supplies to leading OEMs such as Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche and VW.