RÁCALMÁS, Hungary—Hankook Tire & Technology is building an internal warehouse base at its production facility in Rácalmás to improve services and optimize processes.
Construction work started this fall on the $36-million warehouse, which will be used for storing raw materials and finished tires, said Hankook in a Nov. 15 statement.
Set to start operation within a year, the investment is expected to "further improve raw material supply, increase its security and make the process more efficient," according to the Seongnam-Si-based tire maker.
According to Hankook, currently 88 percent of finished tires in Rácalmás are stored in the factory's on-site warehouse, while the remainder and "a significant proportion" of incoming raw materials are stored off-site.
The new investment includes a planned unit, with a floor area of around 140,000 square feet, for the storage of raw materials such as chemicals, textile and steel wires, carbon black, silica and block rubber raw materials.
Another building will increase the finished tire storage capacity of the plant to 1.5 million tires with a floor area of 215,000 square feet.
The improvements, Hankook said, will enable the company to meet its current storage needs in-house without the need for outsourced services.
It will also reduce transportation activities, which will help lower negative environmental impact of road transport operations.
