South Korean tire company Kumho Tire has opened a production line with an annual capacity of 4 million tires in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to a Kumho Tire official, the company held a grand opening ceremony for the Kumho Tire Georgia plant on May 2 in Macon, Georgia.
The construction of the Kumho Tire Georgia plant began in May 2008, but it ground to a halt during the global financial crisis before being resumed in 2014. The Kumho Tire Georgia plant has been making tires since the beginning of this year.
A total of $450 million was ploughed into the plant, which stands on an area of 530,000 square meters and has a gross floor area of approximately 80,000 square meters. The company plans to gradually raise annual production up to 10 million.
The state-of-the-art $450 million plant is equipped with a cutting-edge proprietary system dubbed Automated Production Unit (APU), which the company claims will help boost product quality and manufacturing efficiency.
In addition, a new lot tracking system (LTS) using radio frequency identification (RFID), combined with laser guided vehicles (LGV) — unmanned carriers that move along pre-determined routes — ensure a fully-automated movement of products, allowing for real-time production control on a strict first-in-first-out basis, according to Kumho.
“North America is home to one of the world’s largest auto and tire markets. We believed a production base on this crucial continent is a must if we are to significantly expand our presence in the market in our bid to become a top tire manufacturer,” said Park Sam-gu, chairman of Kumho Asiana Group, at the grand-opening ceremony on May 2.
