“Indian Market Expected To Embrace Aluminium Wheels In A Big Way”
Auto Tech Review|April 2018

The global wheel manufacturing space is undergoing a steady shift from steel wheels to aluminium wheels. Brazil-headquartered Maxion Wheels has been at the forefront of this shift, and in order to cater to the Indian market demands, it had recently laid the foundation of an aluminium wheel plant at Pune that is expected to be up and running by 2019. Auto Tech Review caught up with Pieter Klinkers, CEO, Maxion Wheels to know about Maxion Wheels’ global presence and new focus areas.

“Indian Market Expected To Embrace Aluminium Wheels In A Big Way”
 Pieter Klinkers has been serving as the CEO of Maxion Wheels since March 2015. Prior to the current assignment, he had served as President for the company’s Europe, Africa and Asia-Pacific regions. Klinkers had joined as Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Hayes Lemmerz in 2005, which was acquired by IochpeMaxion in 2012. He also held various senior marketing and sales positions at Michelin. Klinkers’ strategic leadership has helped Maxion Wheels enhance its product diversity as well as expand its geographic footprint, consistently responding to the continuously evolving customer needs. Klinkers has positioned the company well through strategic investments and partnerships. He instituted a company-wide ideation process that engaged more than 10,000 employees in putting their ‘creative’ thinking cap on to solve various customer challenges. He graduated from Maastricht University’s School of Business and Economics in the Netherlands with a master’s degree in Business Administration.

Give us a brief understanding about Maxion Wheels’ existing business verticals?

Maxion Wheels basically operates three business segments – steel wheels for cars, aluminium wheels for cars and steel wheels for trucks. All these three units have different volumes but more or less same sales turnover. Globally, demand for aluminium wheels is much higher than steel wheels; its penetration at about 68 %. We produce 26 mn steel wheels and 15 mn aluminium wheels for cars, and 9 mn steel wheels for trucks annually. Aluminium truck wheels are a new focus area for us and we intend to grow in that space as well.

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