0
A panoramic view of Hankook Tire's manufacturing plant in Hungary. / Courtesy of Hankook Tire & Technology

South Korea's three major tire manufacturers—Hankook Tire & Technology, Kumho Tire, and Nexen Tire—are moving away from production in China as the European Union finalizes anti-dumping duties on Chinese-made tires.

According to industry sources on July 9, the European Commission has decided to impose a 24.4% anti-dumping duty on passenger car and light truck tires manufactured in China.

Under the final ruling, the specific duty rates have been locked in at 4.3% for Hankook Tire and 24.4% for both Kumho Tire and Nexen Tire.

In response, the three tire companies plan to protect their profitability by focusing on high-value-added products, such as high-inch and electric vehicle (EV) tires. Concurrently, they will lower their reliance on Chinese production lines while ramping up output from manufacturing facilities located within Europe.

Nexen Tire has already aggressively reshaped its supply chain, slashing the proportion of Chinese-made products in its total European sales volume from roughly 15% last year to around 4% this year.

Kumho Tire plans to scale up its European shipments from its upcoming facility in Poland, aiming to leverage the plant as its primary regional hub once construction is completed for a targeted 2028 operational launch.

Hankook Tire is currently investing approximately 540 million euros to expand the truck and bus radial (TBR) tire lines at its existing plant in Hungary. This expansion project is designed to add an annual production capacity of 800,000 TBR tire units.

Alongside these supply chain relocations, the companies are expanding their premium product lineups to secure strong margins. They plan to steadily raise the sales proportion of high-value-added products, focusing heavily on high-margin tires measuring 18 inches or larger as well as specialized EV tires.

                                                                                                                Kim A-yun