Hankook to add TBR capacity at Hungary factory

NEU-ISENBURG, Germany—Hankook Tire & Technology Co. Ltd. is reviving plans to add capacity for truck/bus tires at its factory in Racalmas, Hungary, this time with a $590 million, three-year investment project.

Hankook plans to add capacity totaling 800,000 truck/bus tires a year at the 16-year-old Racalmas factory, a 45% increase over the expansion plan disclosed in 2018 but later scuttled due in part to an economic downturn, especially in the automotive industry, at that time.

The new capacity will create up to 450 jobs at the job at full capacity, which should be reached during 2027/28, Hankook said.

Operational since 2007, the Racalmas plant is one of Hankook's eight tire plants worldwide and has a rated capacity of 17.2 million passenger tires per year.

Hankook's other factories with truck/bus tire capacity are in Daejeon and Geumsan, South Korea, and Huaian, Jiangsu, China. Hankook also is adding capacity for truck/bus tires at its factory in Clarksvillle, Tenn., as part of a $1.6 billion, three-year upgrade of the six-year-old plant.

That project is designed to double capacity for passenger and light truck tires to 11 million units a year and install capacity for 1 million radial truck/bus tires a year. The new manufacturing capabilities could be on stream by late 2024 and reach full capacity by 2026.