Kumho Tire Co., South Korea’s second-biggest tiremaker by sales, said Monday it started supplying tires for Volkswagen’s Multivan T7 model this year.

Kumho Tire has provided the ECSTA HS52 summer tire product for the German carmaker’s Multivan T7 in the form of original equipment (OE) tires since May in their expanded partnership, the company said in a statement.

Supplying OE tires to car manufacturers does not generate much revenue for tiremakers, but securing big companies as clients helps improve their brand image and can lead to boosting brand awareness and a rise in product prices down the line.

For tiremakers, it is more profitable to sell replacement equipment (RE) tires in the after-sales market.

Kumho Tire has provided its OE tire products to carmakers, including Audi, BMW, Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz, to enhance its global brand image.

The company earned 18 percent of its total revenue from abroad in 2023. It posted 4.04 trillion won (US$3 billion) in sales last year.

It has eight plants —
three in South Korea, three in China, one in Vietnam and one in the United States, whose combined capacity reaches 62.5 million tires per year.

Source: Yonhap News Agency