Alcoa Restructures Passenger Car Rim Business

Alcoa is planning to develop a range of forged aluminium passenger car rims, which will be produced alongside the company’s forged truck products. The wheels will be produced at Alcoa’s Samara, Russia, plant and will also be made available for sale in the European market. At the same time the company is set to embark on a restructuring programme designed to improve efficiency, shedding five per cent of its total international workforce. This means up to 800 jobs in the company’s wheel business could be lost. The wheel restructuring programme is expected to cost the company between $65 and $70 million – roughly half of this will be down to severance costs.

Alcoa acquired the casted wheel business as part of the large purchase of competitor Reynolds in 1999. This acquisition saw the company take over factories in Italy (Ferrara), Venezuela and North America. However, Alcoa never really seemed happy with its casted aluminium passenger car rim strategy.