Kumho expanding China plant with new-energy tire capacity

Nanjing, China – Kumho Tire Co. has launched the second phase of a 'technical transformation' project at its tire manufacturing site in Nanjing, China, to address growing demand for ‘new-energy’ tires.

The project completes Kumho’s delayed ‘phase III’ at the factory, originally designed for 3.5 million passenger car tires.

In April last year, Kumho changed the scope of the third phase, stating that it was upgrading the plant to produce an additional 1.78 million units of ‘high-performance new-energy vehicle tires.’

The tire maker has now unveiled further plans to complete 'Phase III' in a 7 April environmental assessment report.

According to the filing, Kumho now plans to modify the remaining unbuilt capacity to produce 1.4 million new-energy tires.

As part of this, Kumho will upgrade the factory and replace key production equipment such as moulding machines, vulcanisers, uniformity grading machines, and dynamic balancing equipment at the site.

Overall, the third phase will add capacity for 3.18 million new-energy tires once completed.

Kumho moved its production operations to the Nanjing Pukou Economic Development Zone in 2017, consolidating its truck & bus and passenger car tire production into one plant.

The plant was initially to be developed in three phases, with capacity for 5 million passenger car tires in phase I, 440,000 truck and bus tires in phase II, and 3.5 million passenger car tires in phase III.

With its completion, the final phase will bring the factory’s overall capacity to 8.18 million semi-steel tires and 440,000 all-steel tires.