Hankook Tire Co., the world’s seventh-largest tire manufacturer, is accelerating transformation into a comprehensive automotive component vendor and repair specialist in order to keep up profitability in the fast-changing business environment.

Its focus of nurturing is primarily the automotive components and aftermarket. Hankok Tire is the second major shareholder of Hanon Systems, a company specializing in vehicle thermal management, with a stake of 19.49 percent. The producer has been receiving increasing orders from multinational automakers in their focus on eco-friendly cars. Out of $1.2 billion new orders last year, about 35 percent had been in parts related to hybrids, plug-in hybrids and electric cars.

Hankook Tire is also venturing into the EV batteries business with its subsidiary AtlasBX Co. Sales of Atlas BX, a company engaged in manufacturing and sale of storage batteries, increased to 554.8 billion ($488.2 million) last year from 465.1 billion won in 2014.

Automotive aftermarket is another area of interest for the company. Hankook Tire Worldwide Co., the holding enterprise for the Hankook Tire group, invested 10 billion won in February to create HK Automotive. The new repair and maintenance company is expected to open about 10 facilities specializing in import car repairs in the metropolitan area.

By Park Chang-young

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