Automotive wheel and structural components manufacturer Iochpe-Maxion has joined the United Nations (UN) Global Compact, the world’s largest voluntary platform for the development, implementation, and disclosure of responsible sustainability business practices.
Iochpe-Maxion increased its sales by at least 29.2 per cent worldwide in the past nine months to 12.79 billion Brazilian real (2.47 billion euros). Since pre-tax profits (EBIT) rose meanwhile by only 4.6 per cent to 1.1 billion real (208 million euros), the EBIT margin of the world’s largest wheel manufacturer fell by two percentage points to 8.4 per cent.
Thanks to its delivery of low-CO2 steel wheel options to commercial vehicle manufacturers and fleets, Maxion Wheels says it is “ahead of the curve on carbon footprint savings.” But the world’s largest wheel manufacturer anticipates that by 2025, it will be able to offer steel commercial vehicle wheels with a cradle-to-gate carbon footprint more than 65 per cent lower than current wheels.
Although Maxion Wheels is setting up a new facility for manufacturing forged aluminium commercial vehicle wheels, its traditional strength is steel wheels. Expansions in Turkey and Brazil have increased the company’s global capacity for these products to ten million pieces annually, and Maxion has now debuted what it claims is “Europe’s lightest mass-produced steel truck wheel.” The first of these lightweight wheels arrives in size 22.5 x 11.75.
The truck steel wheel plant that Maxion Wheels and Inci Holding have jointly built in Turkey is ready to open, and during last week’s IAA Transportation show the two companies additionally announced plans to set up a facility for manufacturing aluminium commercial vehicle wheels. Maxion Wheels says adding forged aluminium commercial vehicle wheels “rounds out” its globally leading steel wheels portfolio, making Maxion a “one-stop option for truck and trailer manufacturers.”
Maxion Wheels, the world’s largest wheel manufacturer, intends to share its commercial vehicle wheel growth strategy, including new product and sustainability solutions, at the IAA Transportation 2022 show in Germany. The company will elaborate on these subjects during a press conference at its exhibition space on Tuesday 20 September.
Iochpe-Maxion, the world’s largest wheel supplier and the leading structural components supplier in the Americas, has set an objective of becoming a carbon neutral supplier by 2040. This target, Roadmap Zero, is the focus of all sustainability developments at the global Tier One.
Reporting on its response to the fire that broke out at its plant in Manresa, Spain on Monday, Maxion Wheels shares that the company’s Incident Management Team is on site today to “oversee fire damage restoration.” Depending on circumstances, some production may resume there as soon as next week.
Conflicting reports on the damage to Maxion Wheels’ Manresa plant in Spain are currently circulating. While local news sources suggest that the fire that broke out in the facility on Monday has completely halted production and will affect it for some time, comment from Maxion Wheels challenges the veracity of these reports. The wheel manufacturer intends to issue an official statement on the matter in due course.
Maxion Wheels reports that construction and infrastructure work for its new Maxion Jantaş commercial vehicle (CV) steel wheel plant in Manisa, Turkey is now complete. The wheel manufacturer and local partner Inci Holding anticipate that the 21,000 square metre facility will be complete in the first quarter of 2022 and will increase Maxion Jantaş’ total production capacity to up to three million CV steel wheels a year.
It’s a little over a year since Maxion Wheels and ZF Openmatics announced they’d teamed up to develop the Smart Wheel, and Maxion now reports that road testing of this connectivity solution will commence in 2020. During the Ioche-Maxion Investor Day 2020, held online yesterday, Maxion Wheels’ chief executive officer confirmed that Smart Wheel prototypes would be on the road before the end of the year.
As of 5 February 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) reports that there have been 24,554 confirmed cases of coronavirus across 25 countries since the outbreak began on 23 January 2020. Governments all round the world are taking steps to contain the spread of the virus as well as to develop treatment, but China is bearing the brunt of it with 24,363 cases within its borders alone. As a result, the transport systems of at least 10 cities in the People’s Republic have been shut down and public gatherings are being discouraged. As a result, home-working rates have shot through the roof and there has been an inevitable impact on the manufacturing industry. Considering China is the world’s largest manufacturer of tyres by unit volume, what impact is the coronavirus having on the tyre industry?
Drag is, for want of a better word, a drag. It literally gets in your way wherever you go. Design teams must combat this restrictive force whenever developing a new vehicle, and Maxion Wheels has come to their aid with a new concept. It calls this the Aerowheel.
The USA has determined the rate of anti-dumping and countervailing duties it will charge on steel commercial vehicle wheels imported from China, and the levels set are high. This month, the US Department of Commerce announced final anti-dumping duties of 231.7 per cent and countervailing duties of 457.1 per cent.
Maxion Wheels, the world’s largest wheel manufacturer, has entered into an agreement to form a new passenger car aluminium wheel joint venture with Dongfeng Motor Parts and Components Group, one of China’s largest automotive parts companies. The new legal entity, Dongfeng Maxion Wheels, will build a new two-million per year capacity plant in Hubei Province, China. Series production is scheduled to begin in the second half of 2020.
Arno Borchers/Profil Verlag