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 has joined non-profit bodies the Aluminium Stewardship Initiative (ASI) and ResponsibleSteel, and claims as such to be the first wheel manufacturer to become a member of these organisations committed to the responsible sourcing, production and use of aluminium and steel.
In response to increased global demand from the farming sector for customised rim solutions, NDI Group is increasing capacity at its rim factory in Brørup, Denmark. It is doing so through an expansion of its production facility, and describes the work carried out as a “first step”. NDI anticipates completing the expansion in early 2022.
STARCO Huanmei, a wheel manufacturing operation in China founded in 2007 as a joint venture with Kenda, is moving to an entirely new production facility that provides the scope to greatly increase output. The new plant is located in Zhejiang Province, some three hours away from Shanghai. Following a traditional Chinese opening ceremony two weeks ago, STARCO anticipates the factory achieving full operation by mid-October.
In October 2020 GKN Wheels & Structures was acquired by Aurelius Equity Opportunities SE & Co. KGaA. The new owners announced that the acquisition was completed on 26 November 2020 and since then, the company has been “planning for our future”. This means “listening to [its] teams internally as well as our external stakeholders-working to look at how we can work better and smarter together as we move forward”. But in practice the most noticeable immediate development is the decision to rename the business as Moveero.
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.
Firefighters have extinguished a blaze at the Maxion Wheels light vehicles steel wheel plant in Manresa, Spain. According to local media sources, the fire service received a call to the site at 6:45pm yesterday afternoon. They had brought the fire under control by 8:30pm. While there are no reported injuries, four pieces of plant machinery are apparently affected. The factory building’s roof has also sustained some damage.
One of the world’s largest manufacturers of steel wheels for the off-highway and mobile crane industry has gained the royal seal of approval. Titan Steel Wheels has been awarded the Queen’s Award for International Trade for Outstanding Short-Term Growth in overseas sales.
Titan International, Inc. has reduced its shareholding in steel wheel manufacturer Wheels India Limited. It sold, via a wholly-owned subsidiary, a 10.4 per cent stake in Wheels India on 3 October, thereby dropping its share in the company from 34.2 to 23.8 per cent. Titan International intends to use the net proceeds of approximately US$19 million received from the transaction to pay down outstanding indebtedness.
When tourists visit Croatia, they don’t come to Beli Manastir. The sleepy town of around 8,000 inhabitants is about as distant as you can get from Croatia’s bustling beach resorts and still stay within the country’s borders. But Beli Manastir’s lack of package holiday cred doesn’t matter a jot to STARCO – instead of bringing the world to Beli Manastir, it is taking Beli Manastir to the world.
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.
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Arno Borchers/Profil Verlag
Moveero
Titan Steel Wheels