Hankook Tire has appointed Hyung Yun Kim as the new managing director of its European factory in Hungary. Kim succeeds Seong Hak Hwang, who had been managing the production site in Rácalmás since 2017 and will take up a new role within the company.
Kim joined Hankook in 1991 and has held various managerial roles within the company, most recently in the Production Planning Division at Hankook Tire’s global headquarters in Korea.
With a production capacity of 19 million tires a year and around 3,000 employees, the facility in Hungary is considered key to Hankook’s European operations. “We welcome Mr Kim in his new position here in Europe,” commented Sanghoon Lee, president of Hankook Tire Europe. “The European Hankook factory is the heart of our company on the continent and a success story ever since it began production in 2007. With his profound technological expertise and long-term business experience, our new factory MD will continue our success, paved by his predecessors, together with our proud employees.”
Hankook noted that Seong Hak Hwang had successfully managed its European plant during his years as MD and thanks to his efforts, the plant is running at full capacity despite the disruptions due to the Covid-19 pandemic. A number of major OE cooperations were introduced under his leadership and the plant now supplies almost 900 size and model variations to the market.
