Maxion Wheels is a global leader in wheel rim technology and the world’s largest producer of automotive wheel rims. Kalyani Maxion Wheels Ltd., the company’s Indian arm, has carved a niche for itself in the domestic market, thanks to its unfaltering focus on innovation and customer-centric product design and development. The Indian entity, apart from catering to customers in the commercial vehicle (CV) and passenger vehicle (PV) segments in the domestic market, supplies to a number of global OEMs in neighbouring overseas markets.
In an exclusive interview to MOTORINDIA, Mr. Prakash Kodlikeri, Managing Director, Kalyani Maxion Wheels Ltd., says: “We have a solid product line and are expanding fast. Apart from catering to CV OEM customers like Tata Motors, Volvo, Daimler and VECV in the domestic market, we supply to leading CV and PV brands in China, Korea, Japan, Thailand and other South-East Asian countries. Our aim is to maintain our product leadership and introduce new products in partnership with our customers.”
Leveraging its global presence, technology know-how and local capabilities in India, Maxion is looking to further expand its presence in overseas markets. “We currently export 25-30 per cent of our truck wheels and 35-40 per cent of our car wheels. We want to concentrate on the global market, and as we look to grow outside India, demand for engineering goes higher and that gives us a good platform to improve our product engineering. We supply to the best in the world – Daimler in Germany, Iveco in Italy, ISUZU in Japan and Hyundai Trucks in Korea – that shows our strength in product engineering”, adds Mr. Kodlikeri.
Expanding and upgrading
Maxion, with its lowest weight-highest strength concept, is a pioneer in tubeless tyre wheels for CVs in the Indian market since 1999. Using high-strength steel (HSS), developed in co-operation with its steel supply partners, the wheel maker has come up with a light-weight wheel developed using European technology. The product, 10 to 15 per cent lighter than conventional wheels, is currently being tested and will be offered to customers soon. With the Government coming down heavily on overloading of trucks, the concept of light-weighting is likely to catch the attention of fleet operators, mainly due to the significant fuel saving and tyre wear reduction it offers.
Kalyani Maxion has a state-of-the-art manufacturing plant in Pune which is currently undergoing massive capacity expansion coupled with a major upgradation in manufacturing processes. “We are expanding our truck wheels capacity from 1.2 million wheels per year currently to 1.5 million wheels per year. For car wheels, our annual capacity is being doubled from 2 million wheels currently to 4 million wheels. What we are doing is not just capacity expansion; we are bringing in new manufacturing processes that will enhance the productivity of our facility. Our ‘Pune – Truck’ plant has been ranked No.1 among our 21 plants globally, based on a variety of performance parameters. Our next target is to ensure our ‘Pune – Passenger car plant’ achieves No. 2 in that list”, adds the MD.
Asked about Kalyani Maxion’s top three priorities until 2020, he says: “First to strengthen our engineering, second to draw strengths from our global plants to bring in new manufacturing processes, and third to expand capacities.”