SEOUL (Reuters) -Production at Kumho Tire’s largest factory in South Korea was suspended due to a fire that broke out on Saturday morning, a company spokesperson said.
The factory in the southwestern city of Gwangju has the capacity to produce 12 million tires a year, accounting for nearly 20% of Kumho’s global production capacity, the spokesperson said.
One employee and two firefighters have been injured so far, the local fire agency said, with some 355 firefighters and 100 vehicles now deployed to the site. The fire could burn for several days, the agency said.
Kumho Tire is seeking to increase production at one of its other domestic factories to offset lost production, the company spokesperson said.
The company’s customers include Hyundai Motor, Volkswagen Group and Mercedes-Benz, according to its regulatory filing.
Tires from the factory in Gwangju are also exported, especially to Europe, the spokesperson said.
The fire allegedly broke out in the process of mixing chemicals with rubber, a highly inflammable material, media reports said.
(Reporting by Joyce Lee and Hyunjoo Jin; Editing by Sam Holmes and Sonali Paul)
