Hankook Tire’s Daejeon plant is one of the world’s largest tire factories in terms of production capacity.

The factory was established in 1979 in order to meet the growing demand for ultra-high-performance tires globally. The facility is able to produce 24 million tires every year, making up 27 percent of the company’s total production.

Despite the large size, the roles for workers are limited only to management and quality control, while cutting-edge machines and smart systems are responsible for most of the actual tire production.

The first factory has also paved the way for other Hankook Tire production plants to be built up both in Korea and overseas.

Another plant in Geumsan, South Chungcheong Province, started production in 1997 with an investment of 1 trillion won during its four expansion projects.

One characteristic of the Geumsan factory, which was completed in 2005, is that it operates its own race tracks to check the safety and performance of tire products.

One of the two circuits is used to inspect performance features such as cornering, braking and noise-control capacities of products, while the other is the nation’s only wet track that carries out tests for more extreme conditions such as rainy or snowy roads.

More than 100 types of tests are conducted at the facilities.

Hankook Tire also operates a factory in Hungary with an annual capacity of 12 million tires. It produces some 500 types of tires for sedans, sport utility vehicles and trucks.

Even though other companies are tightening their belts, the tire maker plans to continue new investment in production for the future.

Adding to the current five factories running in Korea, China and Hungary, the company has already launched test-drives of new factories in China and Indonesia with the aim of starting production there this year.

Together with the completion of the two factories, Hankook Tire’s production capacity is expected to grow from the current 90 million to 110 million annually.

If they succeed in doing so, the company predicts that it would become the world’s fifth-largest tire maker with an annual capacity of more than 100 million tires by 2014, while its profitability based on earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization exceeds $1 billion.

By Lee Ji-yoon (jylee@heraldcorp.com)