Hankook Tire to double U.S. production on local demand

SEOUL, Feb. 15 (Yonhap) -- Hankook Tire & Technology Co., the world's seventh-largest tiremaker by sales, said Monday it plans to expand its U.S. plant to meet demand from local carmakers.

Hankook Tire plans to initially inject 100 billion won (US$91 million) this year to double the production at its plant in Tennessee by the first half of 2024, a company spokesman said over the phone.

The Tennessee plant will have an annual output capacity of 11 million tires, up from the current 5.5 million units, if the expansion is completed, he said.

In 2020, net profit fell 12 percent to 379.2 billion won from 429.6 billion won a year earlier on foreign exchange losses.

Hankook Tire has two domestic plants and six overseas plants -- one in the United States, one in Hungary, one in Indonesia and three in China -- whose combined capacity reaches 100 million units.

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