This undated photo provided by Hankook Tire shows its new proving ground Hankook Technoring in Taean on the western coast of the country.
SEOUL, May 25 (Korea Bizwire) — Hankook Tire & Technology Co. said Wednesday it has completed Asia’s longest tire proving ground in South Korea to meet rising demand for high-end products for next-generation vehicles.
Hankook Tire has invested 230 billion won (US$180 million) to build Hankook Technoring in Taean on the western coast of the country, the company said in a statement.
The new proving ground covers 1.26 million square meters, which is tantamount to 125 soccer fields combined. It has 13 testing tracks mainly for electric vehicle and supercar tire products, it said.
High-speed driving tests are also possible at the speed of 250 kilometers per hour.
In the January-March quarter, Hankook Tire’s net profit fell 41 percent to 103.21 billion won from 174.88 billion won a year earlier due to higher raw materials prices and global supply chain disruption.
Hankook Tire, the world’s sixth-biggest tiremaker by sales, earns over 80 percent of its total revenue abroad.
It has eight plants — two in South Korea, one in Hungary, one in the United States, three in China and one in Indonesia — whose combined capacity reaches 102 million tires per year.
The company plans to invest 300 billion won by 2025 in upgrading its domestic facilities and to increase its global output capacity to 150 million tires by 2030.
(Yonhap)
