Kumho Tire Company announced this week it plans to sell its natural rubber processing plant in Vietnam, as it looks to focus on its core business amid falling sales and mounting losses last year. 

The South Korean tyre manufacturer said it had reached an agreement to sell the factory to a local joint venture between Hyundai Motor and Vietnam's Thanh Cong Group. The company is looking to finalise the deal by May.

The US$4m factory began operations in 2007 and has the capacity to process natural rubber for up to 6m tyres per year.

Kumho Tire is South Korea's second-largest tyre manufacturer behind Hankook Tire with annual revenues of KRW2.37trn (US$2.1bn) in 2019. It is controlled by China's Qingdao Doublestar Industrial Company.

According to reports, Kumho Tire in October 2020 agreed to sell its truck and bus radial tyre plant in China to a Pakistani tyre company, believed to be Century Engineering Industries.

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