Hankook Tire Groundbreaking For New Tennessee Plant

Hankook Tire held a groundbreaking ceremony for its new United States plant based in Tennessee. The Tennessee Plant is Hankook Tire’s eighth global production base and the first U.S.-based facility. This celebratory event took place at the plant site in Clarksville, Tennessee, with the State of Tennessee Governor, Bill Haslam in attendance along with local and state officials, and media representatives.

Expected to begin operation in 2016, the plant will secure production capacity of 12 million tires, mostly for regional supplies in the North American market. This will open more opportunities to strengthen Hankook’s brand reputation with U.S.-based automakers for original equipment tire supplies. Also, the additional production capacity from this plant will contribute to increase annual global production to over 100 million tires.

“Today marks an important milestone in our 73-year history as a tire maker. The new Tennessee Plant will be a pivotal instrument to accommodate our growing business in the United States and also to propel a well-balanced global production portfolio,” said Mr. Seung Hwa Suh, vice-chairman and CEO of Hankook Tire. He added, “Combined with our advanced technological capability, the newest plant will solidify our presence as a top-tier manufacturer in the global tire industry.”

Building on an aggregated land area of 469 acres, Hankook Tire will invest 800 million USD for the construction of this new plant. With this investment in place, the new plant will be a state-of-the-art tire production facility and create approximately 1,800 full-time jobs in the region.

“We want to congratulate Hankook Tire on breaking ground on its first U.S. manufacturing facility in Montgomery County,” Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam said. “Hankook’s announcement has not only made a major impact on Tennessee’s automotive sector, but will also boost the Clarksville-area workforce as we continue our work to make Tennessee the No. 1 location in the Southeast for high quality jobs.”