Hankook Tire's Daejeon plant halts production due to fire, resumption date 

Hankook Tire & Technology (Hankook Tire) announced on Wednesday that it has suspended operations at its Daejeon plant due to a fire that broke out on Mar 12. The entire Daejeon plant, including Plant 2 where the fire occurred, has been shut down. The expected date for the resumption of production is currently undecided.

The fire broke out at Hankook Tire's Daejeon Plant 2 in Moksang-dong, Daedeok-gu, Daejeon, at 10:09 p.m. The fire burned more than 87,000 square meters of the plant and destroyed all 400,000 tire products in the logistics building of Plant 2. Ten workers were taken to the hospital for smoke inhalation, and one firefighter was treated for an ankle injury.

Firefighters extinguished the blaze in three phases, and it took them 13 hours to contain the main flames. The fire originated in a production line located in the middle of Plant 2, north of the Daejeon Plant, and later spread to the logistics building and raw material plant of Plant 2.

Hankook Tire stated, "We are currently checking the circumstances of the accident and the damage. Employees, including management, are working to minimize losses through prompt accident investigation and recovery." After determining the exact scale of the damage, Hankook Tire plans to implement measures such as distributing supplies to other production bases in Korea and abroad.

Domestic automakers that rely on Hankook Tire products are monitoring the damage to determine whether they need to take countermeasures, such as securing alternative sources of supply. About 65% of the products produced at the Daejeon plant are exported, and 35% are supplied to domestic automakers.

Hankook Tire operates eight production sites in Korea, including Daejeon and Geumsan, three in China, and one each in the United States, Hungary, and Indonesia.

In line with the electrification strategies of global automakers, Hankook Tire has been developing tires for electric vehicles. Hankook has supplied EV tires to Volkswagen, Porsche, Audi, and Tesla, among others. Hankook Tire has recently launched its own tire brand for electric vehicles, ION, and is accelerating its efforts to target electric vehicles.

By Corporate Korea