The plant, built at a cost of some $200 million, will initially manufacture around 3.15 million tyres per annum, but there is provision to expand production to 13 million units.
With the new plant on stream, Kumho expects its 2008 international tyre production levels to total 34 million units, thereby exceeding its domestic output (around 31 million units) for the first time and hitting the 65 million unit mark. According to the company, this will be a significant step towards the company’s ambition of achieving fifth place in the league of global tyre manufacturers by 2015.
Further steps in this direction will be achieved on the completion of the company’s new truck tyre facility in Nanjing, China at the end of this year and one for passenger car tyres in Georgia, U.S., in late 2009.
The new Vietnamese plant will make tyres for its home market and those of other major Asian countries, taking full advantage of the improved reduction in tariff barriers. Creating around 1,500 new jobs, the tyre plant is Kumho’s ninth global production plant and will export product to the Americas and Europe. Rubber supplies for the new building will stem largely from its Vietnamese rubber factory, which itself only came into being in recent months. (Tyres & Accessories/Staffordshire, U.K.)
