News analysis: Global tire investment pipeline continues to flow

London - Turning into the New Year the appetite for investment in new tire production facilities seemed relatively undented by the prevailing pressures and uncertainties impacting markets worldwide.

The positive capex trend extended even into the hard-pressed European market with Kumho Tire announcing plans to build a tire factory in Opole, in southwestern Poland, as its first European production base.

The plant in Opole, close to the Polish–Czechia border, will help the Korean tire maker expand its global production base and strengthen its presence in the European market, said Kumho in a 1 Dec statement.

Set for operation in August 2028, the KRW860 billion (€502 million) factory will have a capacity to produce 6 million passenger car tires per annum in the first phase.

Kumho went on to add that Europe was “a key market” for the company, accounting for 27% of its total sales last year.

Meanwhile, Kumho has signed an investment agreement to build a new tire manufacturing facility in the Bitgreen industrial complex, in Hampyeong county in southwest Korea…

Read the full ‘Tire investment pipeline’ report