Nankang Rubber Tire Co., a major Taiwanese tire maker, announced Tuesday a new round of product price hikes from the start of next month to reflect soaring natural rubber prices. 'Nankang Rubber will have an overall price increase of about 8 percent from January in response to rising raw material costs, ' the company said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. The price hikes will come just one month after the Taipei-based company raised tire prices by between 6 percent and 8 percent Dec. 1 to avoid a negative impact on its gross profits for the fourth quarter of this year. 