Hankook to begin construction of US plant

Rubber and Plastics News reports that Hankook Tire plans to break ground later this year on its first factory in the US, a passenger and light truck tire plant in Clarksville, Tennessee. Once groundbreaking takes place the plant should take about 18 months to complete, putting in on-stream in 2016. The plant is budgeted at $800 million, and will have an initial capacity of 6 million tires/year, rising to 11 to 12 million tires/year in a second phase. Byeong Jin Lee, president of Hankook Tire America Corp., announced the schedule at Hankook’s Partners Day in Jamaica on Feb. 18. The plant will be the largest tenant at the Clarksville Business Park.