South Korea’s Hankook Tire looks to direct tire sales in Taiwan

Hankook Tire & Technology Co., South Korea’s top tire manufacturer, is launching a local corporation in Taiwan to directly sell tires in the Southeast Asian country.

The company has appointed Xu Shengqi, a Taiwanese executive with more than 20 years of work experience at Hankook Tire, as the head of the local branch, sources said on Tuesday.

The tire maker will officially announce the establishment of its Taiwanese branch by the end of this month, a person familiar with the matter said.

Hankook Tire began selling its tires in Taiwan through local agencies in 2007. Now the company hopes to sell tires through its own sales channels to enhance its presence in the country – one of the fastest-growing markets in the Asia Pacific.

Xu is known for his extensive business and marketing experience gained while working at several of Hankook’s branches outside Taiwan, including Korea, industry officials said.

The establishment of a corporation in Taiwan will help the Korean company strengthen its ties with existing dealers in the local market and explore new business opportunities, they said.

TO EXPAND TIRE LINEUP

With the planned launch of a Taiwanese branch, Hankook Tire is also expected to beef up its local tire lineup of general tires as well as electric vehicle-only tires, watchers said.

Last year, the company unveiled a new EV-only tire brand, iON, to join the ranks of the global top five tire makers within the next few years.

EV-only tires, which are up to 20% more expensive and thus more profitable than general tires, require different technologies.

Unlike internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, electric cars don’t produce engine noise, which makes road noise seem louder when their tires touch road surfaces. So, noise reduction technology is applied to EV tires.

In addition, heavy batteries give electric cars 10-20% higher loads than ICE vehicles, so EV tires must have greater durability.

As demand for replacement equipment (RE) tires is growing fast in line with increasing sales of electric cars, Hankook plans to increase its production of EV tires for replacement purposes.

Its EV tires include the iON evo AS and the iON evo AS SUV sold globally, including in Europe and the US.

EYES A LOCAL CORPORATION IN ROMANIA

One of Hankook Tire’s key business strategies that set it apart from its two Korean rivals – Kumho Tire Co. and Nexen Tire Corp. – is to build more factories near the markets where tires are sold.

Hankook said it is coping with higher shipping costs and growing trade protectionism, including the US government’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) that incentivizes locally produced electric vehicles and batteries, by establishing offices and building plants in the US. 

As part of such efforts, the company is also considering launching a local corporation in Romania to enhance its European presence.

Hankook Tire makes almost two-thirds of its tires at overseas plants.

The tire maker supplies its EV tires to a growing number of global auto brands including Porsche (Taycan), Audi (e-tron GT, Q4 e-tron and Q4 Sportback e-tron), BMW (i4), Volkswagen (ID.3, ID.4 and GTX), Tesla (Model 3 and Model Y), China’s NIO (ES6 and EC6) and Hyundai Motor Co.’s IONIQ 6.

Write to Sungsu Bae at baebae@hankyung.com

In-Soo Nam edited this article.