April 25, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] Hankook Tire said on March 26 it will expand its plant in Hungary to produce truck and bus tires as part of its effort to meet growing local demand.

In Hungary, Hankook Tire currently operates a factory that has a capacity of 18 million passenger car tires a year. It plans to invest 378.2 billion won (US$349 million) to expand the plant to produce 550,000 truck and bus tires a year from 2021, a company spokesman said.

As tire demand from commercial vehicle makers, such as Mercedes-Benz, Scania and Mann, is on the rise in Europe, the tire maker has decided to expand its production facility, he said. 

Hankook Tire has a total of eight plants -- one in Hungary, one in Indonesia, three in China, one in the United States, and two in South Korea -- with a combined annual production capacity of 104 million tires.

In 2017, the world’s seventh-biggest tire maker by sales posted a 31 percent on-year decline in net profit to 606.46 billion won.

The net result was affected by an average 5 percent rise in raw material prices last year, the spokesman said.

By Song Seung-hyun and newswires (ssh@heraldcorp.com)