The two tire makers agree to pool their R&D activities and buy stakes in each other to strengthen the partnership as good example of a Korea-Japan alliance
Chairman Park Sam-koo of Kumho-Asiana Group, right, shakes hands with
Chairman Tatanobu Nagumo of Yokohama Rubber Co. of Japan after signing an
MOU on cooperation on R&D activities and sharing capital to rank the 3rd largest
tire maker in the world in Weihai, China, on Nov. 29.
Kumho Tire Co., and Yokohama Rubber Co. of Japan, ranked 12th and 8th in the world tire industry respectively, signed an MOU to cooperate in R&D and sharing capital with the goal to rank 3rd largest in the global tire industry in the future with combined sales exceeding $10 billion, currently placing it at 5th largest, the two tire makers said on Nov. 29.
The signing took place in Weihai, China, with Chairman Park Sam-koo of Kumho-Asiana Group, signing for Kumho and Chairman Tatanobu Nagumo of Yokohama Rubber Co. signing for the Japanese tire maker.
The MOU spells out the cooperation on R&D on tire making technologies to ultimately beat such front-running tire makers as Goodyear, Michelin, and Bridgestone, backed up by an agreement on details to be signed in January next year, the company said.
The two tire makers also agreed to buy stakes in each other to strengthen the partnership at a date to be determined later. The two companies wanted to upgrade their R&D activities and achieve economies of scale in the face of rising demand for high-function, environmentally-friendly and reformative products to enhance their competitive power with the technologies for auto production on the way to further development.
Kumho Tire opened its Central Research Institute in Kiheung, Gyeonggi Province, to strengthen its R&D network. Yokohama Rubber was founded in 1917 as a tire maker and achieved sales of 559.7 billion yen last year, 80 percent of which came from the auto tire sector.