Lagos — Korea's number one tyre brand and the 7th tyre brand in the world, Hankook Tyre Co. Limited has said the Nigerian tyre market is huge and it is positioning itself to benefit from it.
Hankook controls less than just one percent of the Nigerian tyre market for now, selling just about 24,000 pieces of tyres annually.
Mr. Harry Song, the General Manager, Johannesburg Office, which also oversees the Nigerian office said Hankook Tyre in the coming years would take a chunk of the largely import dependent Nigeria tyre market.
Hankook Tyre is one of the world's largest and fastest growing tyre manufacturer for innovative, high-quality and high-performance radial tyres for passenger cars, light trucks, SUVs, RVs, trucks and buses as well as motorsports (circuit racing/rallies).
The Nigeria tyre industry is currently dominated by Chinese tyres and is worth about N100 billion annually. With her two tyre factories - Dunlop and Michelin - dead, her entire tyre need is sourced abroad with huge economic loses currently put at in excess of N50 billion annually.
Song told our correspondent at the 2012 Hankook Partner's Day held in Lagos that Hankook is coming to the Nigerian market with superior quality tyres and at the right price.
"The tyre market in Nigeria is dominated by China. They have good price and good supply. First, we would have to strive to match supply and the price," he said.
He said Hankook would build stronger tyres specifically for Nigerian roads because of the poor roads condition.
"The roads are tough, compared to other countries. We will try to mark stronger tyres at good price for Nigeria" he said.
Though Hankook's market share is small in Nigeria, Mr. Song is hopeful; a few years of continuous investment in Nigeria would yield some fruits.
"Africa is the last emerging markets in the world. We would focus on African market and particularly Nigerian market to grow. In Nigeria, for now, we sell just about 24,000 pieces but we will do better in the coming years" he said.
"We are investing a lot of money in research and development. We are concerned about the quality and not just the price. We plough back at least 5 percent of our profits into research and development" he said.
On building a factory in Nigeria or any part of Africa, he said "in the future, we would consider setting up a factory in Nigeria but not now".
