Hankook Tire focuses on the European market with additional investment in its Hungary plant

• EUR 230 million investment into additional facilities at Hungary plant
• Plans for ten million tyres per year production capacity by 2011
• Demonstrates strong focus on European market

Neu-Isenburg, Germany, 9 September 2009 – Hankook Tire, one of the fastest growing tire manufacturers worldwide, announced today that it plans to invest further EURO 230 million in its Hungary plant for the next 2 years and thus increase the value of the investment to EURO 550 million. Following the completion of the plant extension, Hankook Tire will ramp up their efforts in the European market and double its present production output of 5 million tires to 10 million tyres per year by 2011 in order to meet the increasing demand there.

The additional investment is expected to create approximately 700 new jobs once it is fully operational at the end of 2011, bringing the total number of Hankook Tire employees on the Hungary production lines to over 1,900. The newly developed facility will also be fully automated, environmentally friendly, and equipped with state-of-the-art and latest generation production machiney. In accordance with its long-term plans to increase its production portion of ultra-high performance tyres, Hankook Tire will also add the run-flat production system to the Hungary plant. The new EU labeling, which must be put in place by 2012, will also become possible with this new equipment.

Jin-Wook Choi, Hankook Tire Executive Vice President and COO in Europe, affirmed, "We, at Hankook Tire, are confident in our belief that this investment will help to cultivate the already strong relationships we have with our partners in Hungary, which will ultimately help Hankook Tire continue to grow hand-in-hand with the Hungarian market as a whole." He added, "With the additional production capacity, and even better productivity, we will be able to more aggressively focus on the European market, bringing us closer to our goal of becoming a leading global company."

The Hungarian plant has been manufacturing high-quality products since 2007. The factory is currently supplying various different tyre specifications to all Hankook Tire subsidiaries in Europe. Last year the OE supply to car manufacturing plants also has been started, first to the Czech factory of Hyundai for the i30-compact car then to Volkswagen Nutzfahrzeuge in Germany for the popular VW T5 model with more to come. Due to the growing demand of Hankook-brand high performance tyres in Europe the factory is running at full capacity of approximately 15,000 pieces as a daily average since March 2008.

With the company’s European production base in Hungary the delivery times have been signifficantly reduced from previously one month to just five days for the Europe-made Hankook tyres versus the overseas production. This effect will be increased after the completion of the plant extension as more sizes and specifications designated for the European market can be produced with European origin.