On a roll

The seventh largest tyre producer in the world, Hankook Tire is a global manufacturer of premium quality tyres for a wide range of vehicles such as cars, trucks and buses, as well as motorsports.

Aspiring to bring consumers the utmost excellence in product quality, technological excellence and driving satisfaction, Hankook Tire continuously invests in research and development maintaining five R&D centres and eight production facilities around the world.

Production for the European region takes place at the state-of-the-art manufacturing site in Rácalmás, Hungary which was inaugurated in 2007 and is continuously being expanded. Currently, around 3,000 employees produce up to 19 million tyres a year for cars, SUVs and light trucks at the facility.

The collaboration between Hankook Tire and Nynas dates back to the opening of the Rácalmás plant.

“Shortly after starting operations in Hungary, the Purchasing Department decided to extend our supplier list with the best available local suppliers,” explained Éva Halász, Manager of Purchasing, Hankook Tire Hungary. “We needed new manufacturers with high-quality standards, advanced technology, increased environmental awareness and a similar vision combined with a professional commitment to creating value.”

In 2007 and 2008, Hankook upgraded its existing tyre compounds to prepare for future environmental restrictions.

“At that time, Nynas introduced a new process oil to our company, which was successfully implemented into our products.”

Other occasions when Nynas played an important role as partner, providing service and value-added products, include the introduction of the new European labelling system in 2012 and the launch of Hankook’s self-sealing SEALGUARD® tyres in 2015.

“Our engineers developed a new product, so new applications and new materials were needed to reach the targeted performance that was requested by our car manufacturing partner in Germany. So, from 2014 there was close collaboration between Hankook and Nynas to find specific oils to meet our needs.”

At the moment, Nynas is supplying two different process oils to Hankook, either as the exclusive or main supplier.

“These products provide a perfect interaction of the raw materials in the rubber compound and thus contribute to the well-balanced performance of our tyres combined with fuel efficiency,” said Éva Halász. “Besides the quality of the oils, Nynas also provides us with excellent service. Our colleagues cooperate on an advanced level in the operational offices.”

With Hankook’s ambitious plans for the future, a lot remains to be achieved.

“Hankook Tire Rácalmás plant has already decided about market repositioning, by shifting its production towards high-performance and ultra high-performance tyres for European premium car makers. Hankook Ventus Prime³ UHP was the winner of the Auto Bild 2018 Summer Tyre Competition, which made us all very proud. So we have laid out the way ahead, we have the resolution and we hope that Nynas will join us on this road!”