Dominant Tire Cord Maker
Hyosung signs contract for $650 mil worth of steel tire cord with Michelin

Hyosung Co. is on the verge of becoming a dominant tire cord maker in the world. The company signed an agreement recently with Michelin of France, the world's biggest tire maker, to supply $650 million worth of steel tire cords over 10 years. The signing took place at Michelin's plant complex in Greenville, South Carolina in the United States on July 14.
At the same time, Hyosung agreed with the famous tire maker to take over a steel tire cord plant in Scottsburg, Indiana, in the United States, from Michelin and operate it from August.
Lee Sang-woon, president of Hyosung, said the supply agreement for the tire cord is the biggest ever made in the world, in addition it would help Hyosung to display its technology and quality of its products in the world by signing an agreement with the world's biggest tire maker, Michelin.
In 2002, Hyosung signed a similar agreement with Michelin to supply $350 million worth of polyester tire cord over 7 years and at the time, Hyosung signed an agreement with michelin to take over its tire cord plant in the United States.
The steel tire cord supply agreement elevated Hyosung to take over No.3 position in the global steel tire cord market from the 5th place. The company's share of the U.S. tire cord market would be increased to 14 percent from 7 percent through the agreement with Michelin, the company said.
The company expects its customer service would be enhanced greatly with its take over of Michelin's steel tire cord plant in the United States.
Hyosung currently leads the world polyester tire cord market with 24 percent market share and is in 5th place in the steel tire cord market with 5 percent share. By 2010, the company plans to boost its polyester market share to 32 percent and steel tire cord share to 12 percent to take over 3rd place in the market share.
The company first set up a tire cord plant in 1967 in Ulsan and after achieving the economy of scale for the plant, it set out to attack the world market by setting up a polyester tire cord and steel tire cord plants in China and put them on line early this year.
Last year, the company's sales revenue reached 670 billion won, taking up 14 percent of Hyosung Group's total sales revenue of 4.7 trillion won.
Tire cords support durability, running and stability of a tire made of with nylon, polyester and steel wires.
Since its founding in 1957, Hyosung has grown into a sound Korean conglomerate with approximately 7,000 employees and annual sales over 4.5 trillion won. At present, 21 performance units comprise 7 Performance Groups; Textile PG, Industrial Materials PG, Chemicals PG, Power and Industrial Systems PG, Construction PG, Trading PG and Information and Communication PG.
With its strong and firm base in textile and fiber business, Hyosung ventured out into the areas of manufacturing, heavy industry, construction, and trading in the 1960s and the 1970s. Since the 1980s, Hyosung concentrated on the diversification of businesses, resulting in an astonishing growth in the petrochemical and information & communication field, and has since evolved into a more efficient and sophisticated corporation.
A considerable part of Hyosung's products are intermediary industrial materials needed to manufacture finished goods. Therefore, from the very beginning, Hyosung has built a close working relationship with its suppliers and customers under the entrepreneurial spirit of pursuing co-prosperity based on sincerity and mutual trust.
Capitalizing on the overseas network spanning North America, Europe, Southeast Asia and the Middle East, Hyosung now trades with more than 150 countries. The hard-working employees of Hyosung can be found in every corner of the world, always to be 'close and kind'with their customers. nw

President Lee Sang-woon shakes hands with his counterpart at Michelin after signing a contract to supply steel tire cords.