Hankook's 3rd China plant to serve Ford
Korean tire maker Hankook Tire last week started construction of a plant in the southwest China city of Chongqing to supply Changan Ford Mazda Automobile Corp. and other automakers in the region.
The plant, which will cost $954 million (6.2 billion yuan), will open in August 2012.
The facility initially will produce 4,500 car tires daily, and 30,000 tires a day for trucks and buses, Hankook said in a statement.
The Korean company's 530,000 square-meter factory will be located in Chongqing's Liangjiang New District.
The plant will be Hankook's third in China. Hankook's two factories in east China's Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces have a combined annual production capacity of 29 million tires.
Hankook claims it accounts for 20 percent of the Chinese passenger vehicle tire market.
Aside from Ford's joint venture, Chongqing is also home to Chinese automakers Changan Automobile Co. and Chongqing Lifan Industry (Group) Co.
The plant also is not far away from the city of Chengdu, where Toyota Motor Corp., Volkswagen AG, Chongqing Changan Automobile Co. and Zhejiang Geely Holding Group each operate an assembly plant.
