Hankook Tire announced that it will start commercial operation of its plant in Lippo Cikarang, Bekasi, West Jaya in Q4 2012. Construction of the plant is already 82% complete.
It is the first stage of Hankook’s five-stage development plan, in which the company plans to invest US$1.1 billion ahead of 2018, when it hopes to produce 16 million tyres locally. In the initial phase, the plant would produce around 30,000 tyres allocated for export to the U.S. The plant would boost the company’s output to 4 million tyres in 2013 and 6 million tyres upon its full operation in 2014, boosting the firm’s capacity to be able to generate 100 million tyres 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% 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 US$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 Hankook.
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