Hankook Tire Expands Tennessee Plant to Grow North American Market

Held Board Meeting on 29th and Resolved Related Agenda Items

[Asia Economy Reporter Kiho Sung] Hankook Tire announced on the 29th that it held a board meeting and decided to expand its Tennessee plant located in Clarksville, Tennessee, USA.

The Tennessee plant is Hankook Tire's eighth global production facility. The first phase of construction has been completed, and it currently has manufacturing equipment capable of producing 5.5 million passenger car and light truck tires annually.

This expansion decision includes the second phase expansion for passenger car and light truck tires and the third phase expansion for truck and bus tires, enabling Hankook Tire to establish its first TBR (Truck and Bus Radial) production base in the United States.

Specifically, upon completion of the second phase expansion, the plant will be able to produce 11 million passenger car and light truck tires annually. With the third phase expansion, an additional 1 million truck and bus tires can be produced annually, increasing total production capacity to 12 million tires per year.

Hankook Tire plans to invest $1.575 billion (approximately 2.1 trillion KRW) in stages from the second half of this year through the first half of 2026 for the expansion.

The company stated that production from the expanded facilities will begin in the fourth quarter of 2024 and mass production will be completed by the first quarter of 2026.

Hankook Tire explained that the North American market accounted for about 28% of total sales last year, and the expansion was decided to respond to the continuously increasing demand in the North American market and to build a global production base portfolio.

Hankook Tire also added that the need to be close to sales points due to rising shipping space costs caused by the recent global logistics crisis and tariff barriers were also taken into consideration.

A Hankook Tire official said, "By securing the geographical advantages of Tennessee and economies of scale, we plan to meet the demands of North American consumers and further strengthen strategic partnerships with global premium original equipment manufacturers."

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