[Click eStock] "Hankook Tire & Technology, Expecting Tire Demand Recovery"

Korea Investment & Securities Report

[Asia Economy Reporter Minji Lee] Korea Investment & Securities maintained a buy rating on Hankook Tire & Technology on the 9th and raised the target price by 14% from the previous level to 74,000 KRW.

Hankook Tire & Technology is expected to show strong second-quarter performance due to price increases and increased tire sales volume. Operating profit is estimated at 191.4 billion KRW, exceeding market expectations by 12.8%. Considering that about 30 billion KRW in U.S. tariff burdens were reflected, production was temporarily halted due to transportation issues, and sales of new car tires with vehicle semiconductors were sluggish, the results are considered favorable.

Volume recovery is expected to overcome unfavorable conditions. Although raw material input prices are expected to increase by 7.4% compared to the previous quarter, price hikes are anticipated to mostly offset this. Sales volume is also expected to increase by 2.3% from the previous quarter to 23.4 million units due to strong demand for replacement tires. Jinwoo Kim, a researcher at Korea Investment & Securities, said, “As economic activities gradually resume in major countries, tire demand is also improving,” adding, “The U.S. tire tariff rate will also be lowered from July (38.07% → 27.05%).”

Researcher Kim explained, “Thanks to strong demand, the rise in raw material prices is being sufficiently passed on to sales prices,” and “They are steadily increasing sales of tires for electric vehicles, responding to future car trends.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.