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South Korea's Kumho Tires Co. Inc. signed an agreement today to build a $225 million tire plant in Macon, Ga., about 85 miles southeast of Atlanta.

The plant, Kumho's first outside Asia, will produce car and light-truck radial tires for the original- and replacement-equipment markets in the United States.

The plant will be built in two phases. The first phase, scheduled to come on line at the end of 2009, will have annual production capacity of 2.1 million tires.

If Kumho's market share continues to grow as it expects, the tire maker anticipates spending an additional $60 million to increase annual capacity to 3.15 million tires by 2011.

Kumho's U.S. sales have been growing steadily in recent years, from $150 million in 2000 to $565 million last year. Most of that business was in replacement tires, but Kumho has been making inroads with automakers since establishing an original-equipment sales office in Detroit in 2006.

Kumho expects to sell 1.2 million original-equipment tires in the United States in 2008 and twice that many in 2009.

" Setting a base of production here will help Kumho gain more market share. This new plant will help Kumho reduce freight costs and will also set up a stronger base for the company to achieve its goal of becoming the fifth-largest tire company in the world by 2015," Kumho CEO Sae Chul Oh said in a statement.

Kumho expects to break ground on the first phase of the 5.5 million-square-foot plant in May. Initial employment will be about 400 people, increasing to 450 with the expansion.

Kumho, of Gwangju, Korea, also has manufacturing facilities in Korea, China and Vietnam. It operates technical centers in Gwangju, Korea; Akron, Ohio; Birmingham, England; and Tianjin, China.

Kumho's global sales in 2007 totaled $2.4 billion.

Worldwide, Kumho's original-equipment customers include Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen AG, General Motors, Chrysler LLC, Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Motors Corp.