Hankook Tires history started in 1941 when the Chosun Tire Industrial co., Ltd was founded. The second factory began its work in Youngdeungpo in 1942.  In 1982 Hankook Tires built its own Development and Research Centre. One of the most significant events in the brand history is the 1995 when Hankook Tires won the «US$500 Million Export Tower» award. Being a fast-developing company Hankook Tires made an agreement with Michelin Group. That brought popularity and success to the company and the same year its sales volume made up 700 million dollars a year.

Today South Korea has 3 Hankook factories, one of which has been recently built and is equipped with the latest technologies. Hankook offices opened in the Eropean countries, the USA and others.

The production process functioning in Korea influences favorably the product quality. It is explained by the better company control realization. That is an advantageous company attribute in comparison with its competitors which factories are scattered all over the world. The product quality is controlled worse in that case. Moreover some leading world car producers valued the Hankook Tires functional possibilities and chose the enterprise as the official outfitter.

The German Opel puts the Korean rubber on their cars while the Japan auto giants follow the leads of the European competitors. The Germans can possibly be influenced by the tests results where Hankook was considered to be one of the three best world tires companies for the product compounding quality, good cornering force and directional stability.