Nexen Tire Corp announced that its factory in Changnyeong, South Korea is now on stream. The light tyre factory, Nexen’s second in Korea and third overall, will produce 3 million consumer tyres in 2012. Next year, the company will double the production output.
The eco-friendly plant takes up 20,330 sqm of space, only 4% of the total space available. By 2018, plant expansions will bring its annual capacity up to some 21 million tyres at a total cost of $1.2 billion.
It’s all part of an “ambitious” plan to increase its global production to some 60 million tires, according to Joo Ho Song, senior managing director of global marketing. That also includes: Increasing annual tire production at its Yangsan, Korea, and Qingdao, China, plants (to 20 million each), and adding “premium” vehicles to its global original equipment fitments.
Nexen hopes to be one of the top 10 tyre manufacturers in the world by 2018, adds Song. The automated plant is run 24/7, 351 days a year in three shifts; only 150 workers are needed per shift.
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