Hankook Indonesian plant operational in fourth quarter

qiangzi

Friday, July 6, 2012
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West Java, Indonesia - Hankook Tire, will start commercial operation of the company’s plant in Lippo Cikarang, Bekasi, West Java, in the last quarter of this year. The firm had already completed 82% of construction at the plant, which would add 1,200 workers in its initial phase. The plant, built with an investment of $353 million, is the company’s seventh tire manufacturing facility in the world. It is the first stage of Hankook’s five-stage development plan, in which the company plans to invest $1.1 billion ahead of 2018, when it hopes to produce 16 million tires locally. In the initial phase, the plant would produce around 30,000 tires allocated for export to the U.S. The plant would boost the company’s output to 4 million tires in 2013 and 6 million tires upon its full operation in 2014, boosting the firm’s capacity to be able to generate 100 million tires globally and making it the world’s fifth-largest tire maker, he added. “Indonesia will become our production hub for North America and the Middle East and other neighboring countries,” Park said, adding that the firm would allocate 10 percent of its output to the domestic market, which along with other ASEAN countries grew by 32.8% in the past year. Hankook, which is present through its local subsidiary, PT Hankook Tire Indonesia, will further invest around $5 million over the next two years to build up to 100 sales outlets nationwide, under the “Hankook Master” concept that has been employed overseas, according to the firm.