In addition to the company’s existing U.K. branch, Nexen plans to open more offices in Spain, Italy, and France to expand its European sales network. Nexen Tyre Europe GmbH is being described as “the centre of Europe” for the Korean manufacturer. From here the company plans to execute localised marketing strategies in order to support European customer service.

While the most recent news from Nexen was obviously the details of the new branch office, during Tyres & Accessories’ interview with overseas sales managing director David Sul and Nexen Tyre Europe GmbH boss John-Bosco Kim, the executives were also keen to highlight Nexen’s recent technological advances. Nexen Tire reports that it has aggressively invested in research and development. According to company representatives, environmental issues have led to the development of new products with a focus on reducing fuel consumption. These are scheduled to be brought to market in the “almost near future.”

Much of Nexen’s recent product development progress is built on the company’s strides forward in nano-technology. The unique nano-technology implemented by Nexen has resulted in patented “Nano Tyres” being produced in Korea, which are said to offer “outstanding safety [compared with] pre-existing products.” These Nano Tyres are also said to operation at higher levels of durability with increased wear resistance and increased tensile strength; resulting in decreased thermal conductivity and gas permeability. According to the company, all this means the new generation of Nexen tyres will be “highly effective at reducing the risk of car accidents.”

Nexen’s R&D department has also come up with a so-called silence system, developed to reduce the noise generated by tyres on the road. The new computer engineering technology is said to reduce tyre noise by 49.9% compared with existing tyres.

The firstfruits of the R&D department’s recent labours are new tyres like the N6000 Winguard Sport on-show in Essen. The N6000 is made for the European market, and is designed to offer strong cornering “in any circumstances,” especially on wet road conditions.

Nexen Tire recently completed the construction of a 20,000 m2 (40m high) automatic distribution warehouse at its Yang-San, South Korea, plant. The automatic distribution warehouse is intended to streamline the delivery and organisation of newly produced tyres. The warehouse will have capacity for roughly half a million fully produced tyres and is described as “the pride of Nexen Tire.”

Company officials also point to Nexen’s Qingdao, China production facility as being an example of the lengths the company has gone to to improve delivery. The 530,000 m2 Qingdao factory began production in December 2007 and, when the first phase of expansion is completed in 2010, it will output 6 million tyres annually.

The second phase of expansion will see this figure rise to more than 20 million tyres. The idea is for that together with the large existing capacity at the company’s home factory in South Korea, Nexen will be able to sufficiently supply OE, replacement and export markets. There is even talk of investment in a third facility, in an as-yet undetermined country in Southeast Asia.

In recent years, Nexen has expanded through a particularly aggressive investment programme. The rate at which the company has expanded its production capacity clearly demonstrates this: In 2000 the company produced 7 million tyres a year. By 2007 this had grown to 15 million. This year the company is forecasting a total production capacity of 16 million tyres. According to Nexen representatives, this means Nexen Tire has one of the largest tyre factories on a single site in the world. (Tyres & Accessories/Staffordshire, U.K.)