Hankook Tire CEO Seo Seung-hwa, center, cuts a ribbon with U.S. government officials and company executives during an opening ceremony for the tire maker's first U.S. plant in Clarksville, Tennessee, Tuesday (local time). / Courtesy of Hankook Tire



By Lee Hyo-sik

Hankook Tire has opened its first plant in the United States, taking another step toward becoming one of the world's top-tier tire makers.

Korea's largest tire maker said Wednesday it held an opening ceremony for the plant, capable of producing 5.5 million tires annually, in Clarksville, the southeastern state of Tennessee.

Company CEO Seo Seung-hwa attended the ceremony along with more than 300 government officials and business leaders, including Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam and Clarksville Mayor Kim McMillan.

The $800-million facility, built on a 1.89 square-kilometer site, will bolster Hankook Tire's annual capacity to 104 million, churning out highly functional tires for premium sedans and light trucks in the world's second-largest automobile market.

The company began the construction in 2014 and plans to double the U.S. plant's annual capacity to 11 million.

Hankook Tire also operates two plants in Korea, three in China and one each in Hungary and Indonesia. It earned $5 billion in sales last year, the seventh-largest in the world. It generates more than 80 percent of its sales outside Korea and sells tires in over 180 countries.

"The Tennessee plant will help us supply high-quality tires to automakers and consumers in the United States in a more timely and cost-effective manner," Seo said. "By opening a manufacturing facility in the U.S., we have built a truly global supply network as we run plants in all major car markets. The plant will provide a significant boost to our campaign to become one of the world's top-five tire makers by 2020."

The company chose Tennessee as a plant site because it is more cost-effective to supply tires from there to global carmakers running plants in southern states.

"We will continue to invest to develop eco-friendly and high-performing tires, and provide customer-first services," the CEO said.