Last week, the board of directors at Hankook Tire approved a $1.6B investment to expand the Tennesee plant. The expansion will double the company’s capacity for light truck and passenger car tire production.
Phase 3 is also part of the plan to allow for the manufacture of Truck Bus and Radial (TBR) tires for the first time in the U.S. This alone will create 400 additional jobs and 1,200 new jobs overall.
Passenger-car and light-truck-tire production will double to 11 million while Truck Bus and Radial tire production will achieve 1 million units. Total investment in the area will rise to $2.2B, enabling the company to provide dealers and customers with industry-leading services and high-quality tires.
The state-of-the-art plant began operations in October 2017. Since then, the company has produced 5.5. million Hankook tires annually for the North American market. This has created 950 jobs and accounted for more than 28% of total sales for Hankook in 2021.
Construction is expected to start in early 2023. This is dependent on regulatory approvals, definitive agreements, and other conditions. Tire production will begin in Q4 2024 and achieve full capacity in early 2026.