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.
India’s Tata Motors has become the latest car maker to select Maxion Wheels’ VersaStyle steel wheel as an original equipment rim. Maxion Wheels will deliver 150,000 VersaStyle wheels a year for fitment on the Tata Tiago, a city car sold in the Indian market. Supply to Tata comes on top of the approximately three million VersaStyle wheels that Maxion Wheels produces annually for other customers.
Following an investigation covering the period from 1 July to 31 December 2017, the US Department of Commerce has issued a preliminary determination that steel wheels from the People’s Republic of China were (or were likely to have been) sold in the United States at less-than-fair-value. It now invites interested parties to comment on this preliminary determination.
Under a joint venture contract signed on 22 June, thyssenkrupp Steel Europe will partner with Chinese companies to produce steel wheels, including lightweight hot-formed models, for the local automotive industry. China’s leading steel wheel manufacturer, Jingu Wheel, will hold a 51 per cent share in the joint venture, thyssenkrupp Steel Europe 34 per cent and Ansteel Iron and Steel Group 15 per cent. China’s competition authorities are now examining the tie-up, and thyssenkrupp anticipates the deal’s finalisation within the next few months.
Consolidation within Europe’s commercial vehicle steel wheel market is coming, but three will remain the magic number when it comes to suppliers. Some ten months after the proposed deal was first announced, the European Commission has granted its conditional blessing for Accuride Corporation to acquire steel wheel manufacturer Mefro Wheels GmbH.
Accuride Corporation has entered into an agreement to buy Mefro Wheels GmbH. Headquartered in Solingen, Germany, Mefro Wheels is a privately-owned supplier of steel wheels to the European and Asian passenger car, light vehicle and commercial vehicle industries and maintains manufacturing operations in Germany, France, Turkey, Russia and China.
The small village of Cookely, near Kidderminster, in the rolling Worcestershire countryside isn’t necessarily where you would expect to find a leading manufacturer, but this is exactly where leading OTR wheel supplier to the yellow goods market, Titan Steel Wheels, is based. The subsidiary of Titan International distributes its niche products mainly into Europe, meeting the specifications of end-users in the construction, industrial, mining and agricultural sectors with a wide variety of part numbers, largely comprising three- and five-piece wheels. Tyres & Accessories visited the facility, where Titan Europe managing director, wheels division, Chris Akers talked us through the history of the site, Titan’s current activities and future plans.
Pneus Service, exclusive distributor of the MAK alloy wheel brand in some regions of Italy, is exhibiting at Reifen for the first time this year and will display its own wheel brand, PS. The Chinese-made PS range of steel wheels is certified according to ECE 124 and was first launched in Italy in 2013.
European trailer manufacturers are increasingly fitting size 385/65R22.5 tyres with a load capacity of 164K (5,000 kg) on their trailers as original equipment, and in response to this trend Heuver Tyrewholesale is now supplying a compatible 5,000 kg wheel rim from its Athlete Wheels portfolio. Athlete Wheels is the first non-European brand to add a fully-tested 11.75-22.5 ET120 (5,000 kg) wheel rim to its range. As exclusive importer of the Athlete Wheels brand in Continental Europe (International Tyres is the exclusive UK distributor for Athlete steel truck wheels), Heuver is also introducing new wheel rims in sizes 11.75-19.5 and 11.75-22.5 ET135.
Tata Steel, Europe’s second-largest steel supplier, has launched a new bespoke hot-rolled formable steel grade for manufacturers producing wheel rims for vehicles such as tractors, cranes and wheeled excavators. The company says this new product, DD13WR, offers improved manufacturability and has been developed specifically to meet the needs of major customers with particular requirements across their key global off-highway markets.
Maxion Wheels reports that it will supply Renault with more than a million VersaStyle wheels for the vehicle maker’s Megane, Megane Scenic, Clio and the Dacia Logan and Dacia Sandero Stepway models during the course of 2014. The company has already sold a million VersaStyle wheels in total this year, and more than 15 million units since VersaStyle wheels were first introduced in 2005.
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