Kumho skips Serbia – Here’s why and where South Korean giant is to build its first European tire factory worth EUR 546 million

South Korean tire manufacturer Kumho Tire has officially confirmed that Opole, Poland, has been selected as the location for its first factory in Europe. The investment is worth around USD 587 million (around EUR 546 million).

Let us remind that, according to information from last spring, Serbia and Portugal were also “in the running” for the South Korean giant’s first European factory. At the time, the company said that these two countries, along with Poland, were being actively evaluated as candidates for investment. The factory is planned to start operating in August 2028, with an initial capacity of around 6 million tires per year, with the possibility of expanding production in subsequent phases, industry media reported.

Why Poland?

According to reports, Kumho examined factors such as the location’s suitability for distribution across the EU, the quality and availability of the workforce, competitive infrastructure, investment stability and various incentives offered by the host countries in the final evaluation. Poland was ultimately chosen, according to The Tire Magazine, precisely because it best met these key criteria. It is emphasized that the Polish location of Opole provides efficient logistics for distributing tires to major European automotive market centers, as well as easy access to a well-trained workforce and a partner network of suppliers, which the company particularly appreciated. In addition, the Polish government offered attractive incentives and fiscal benefits, which further strengthened the arguments for choosing this particular location. It is also added that in the final decision-making phase, Kumho narrowed the choice to two candidates before deciding on Poland as the optimal base for long-term production and distribution plans in Europe, but it was not announced who the other “finalist” was.

Kumho Tire is the second largest South Korean tire manufacturer and one of the 10 largest tire manufacturers in the world.

In August, as reported by the Korea Times, the plan to build a factory in Europe appeared to be losing momentum after a fire at Kumho’s Gwangju factory in May, which destroyed much of the facility and forced the company’s parent company to relocate to Hampyeong, where Kumho plans to complete a new factory by the end of 2027, with an annual capacity of 5.3 million tires.

The giant has apparently recovered quickly and consolidated its finances, but the value of the originally announced investment of USD 703 million for the European factory has, as we can see, been reduced.

B. P.

Kumho Tire

production of car tires

European factory

construction of factory in Poland