South Korea’s HS Hyosung Advanced Materials has addressed speculation regarding a potential sale of its tyre steel cord business. While the company confirms that changes may be afoot, it denies being close to reaching a final decision.
On 6 January, Hankook & Company Group announced the completion of its acquisition of Hanon Systems, the world’s second-largest automotive thermal management solutions provider. Full ownership of Hanon System comes a decade after Hankook & Company first took a 19.4 per cent stake in the firm.
Hankook Tire & Technology shares that its Hankook Technodome research institute is collaborating to develop eco-friendly manufacturing technologies as part of a project led by South Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE). The aim is to develop technology for reusing discarded tyre moulds in the manufacture of new, reusable moulds.
Some 180 days after signing a memorandum of understanding with Hahn & Company in May, on 31 October Hankook & Company Group (formerly Hankook Tire Group) entered into share purchase agreements for the acquisition of Hanon Systems Co. Ltd. The company has executed the acquisition through its core business, Hankook Tire & Technology (Hankook Tire), and now holds a 54.77 per cent stake in Hanon Systems.
Korea’s Minister for Trade, Inkyo Cheon,g and Serbia’s Minister of Domestic and Foreign Trade, Tomislav Momirović, have jointly launched negotiations for a Korea-Serbia Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) in Seoul, announcing Korea’s first trade negotiations with a Balkan country. In conjunction with the launch of negotiations, MOTIE also held a business conference with Korean companies operating in the Serbian market.
On 4 July, Nexen Tire unveiled its ‘High Dynamic Driving Simulator,’ a VR-based tool for tyre development. This initiative, which Nexen Tire says is a first for a Korean tyre maker, draws upon the specialist know-how of British equipment supplier Ansible Motion. The tyre maker anticipates that the driving simulator will foster collaboration with vehicle manufacturers, reducing vehicle development times and costs through accelerated virtual development.
Hankook Tire & Technology’s tyre plants in Geumsan, South Korea, and Tennessee, USA are currently home to field tests of augmented reality technology developed by Hankook & Company subsidiary Model Solution. The total hardware platform company now aims to extend its competencies through an agreement signed with an artificial intelligence (AI) and extended reality (XR) technology company Virnect. This will see the two partners collaborating to research and develop smart goggles at Model Solution’s facility in Bucheon, South Korea.
CDP Carbon Management Sector Honors for Hankook Tire & Technology (Hankook Tire). The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) Korea Committee hosted its Climate Change and Water Security Awards on 13 March. Based upon the CDP Climate Change Response Project’s evaluation of more than 23,000 global companies, the Committee acknowledged Hankook Tire within the Consumer Discretionary awards category. The tyre maker achieved an A- rating in the evaluation, one of only 25 Korean companies achieving this distinction.
Nexen Tire lays claim to being the first Korean tyre maker to utilise virtual reality (VR) in the product development process. To strengthen its digital design process capabilities, the tyre maker has developed a VR design simulation system at the Nexen Central Research Institute in Seoul. It says this VR design review system allows users to “appreciate the scale of real tyres in a virtual space.”
Hyundai Motor and Kia have been busy of late. In addition to announcing their new Universal Wheel Drive System, the vehicle makers say they’ve developed a new snow chain-integrated tyre technology that eliminates the need to fit a vehicle with snow chains. The technology uses shape memory alloy modules located inside the wheel and tyre that protrude to act as a ‘snow chain’ when an electrical signal is received.
Within the framework of a Memorandum of Understanding with the Korea Expressway Corporation’s Road Traffic Research Institute, Nexen Tire intends to reduce the time and expense required to produce tyres for original equipment customers. The two partners signed the MoU on 27 November at the Research Institute’s headquarters in Dongtan, Hwaseong.
On 7 November, the Shanghai Stock Exchange published the 2023 credit rating report for Qingdao City Construction Investment (Group) Co Ltd. (Qingdao City Investment), the holding company of Qingdao Doublestar and Kumho Tire. Our sister publication Tyrepresschina.com has shared some of the key details contained within the report, which is dated June 2023.
The inaugural meeting of the Tire-to-Tire Circular Economy Model consortium took place at Hankook Tire & Technology’s Technodome facility in Daejeon, South Korea on 1 November. The Hankook Tire-initiated consortium aims to create a sustainable business model for end-of-life tyres in Korea by “designing innovative upcycling processes” for turning them into new tyres.
For Hankook Tire, original equipment tyre supply to the BYD T4K one-tonne electric truck is an opportunity to “further enhance its strategic relationship with BYD and solidify its presence in the Chinese market, one of the world’s largest EV markets.” BYD has jointly developed the T4K with GS Global specifically for the South Korean market, where it will wear Hankook RA08 tyres.
Half a year after a major fire caused extensive damage to its tyre factory in Daejeon, South Korea, Hankook Tire & Technology has recommenced some tyre production within the facility. In a disclosure to the Korea Exchange (KRX), the company reports that it approved the resumption of production at the site’s Plant 1 facility on 1 September 2023.
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