SuperAlloy Lands Forged-Wheel Orders From Luxury-Car Brands

Taipei, April 1, 2011 (CENS)--SuperAlloy Industrial Co., Ltd., a major manufacturer of forged wheels in Taiwan, recently claimed to have landed orders from five international luxury-car brands for aluminum forged wheels.

The five customers include Mercedes AMG, Holden, BMW, Porsche and Toyota, whose annual order totals about 100,000 rims, SuperAlloy said.

The forged-wheel maker registered revenue of about US$86 million, making it the third-largest supplier to trail Auto Fush of Europe and Alcoa of the United States, whose orders will make SuperAlloy the world's largest supplier of high-end forged wheels by 2012.

C.T. Shih, SuperAlloy president, says that the wheels will begin to be shipped to Mercedes-AMG and Holden in the first half, and to the other three new clients in the second half.

SuperAlloy also supplies aluminum forged wheels to automakers Chrysler, Ford, GM, Honda Access, Jaguar, Opel, Tesla (electric-vehicle maker), and Toyota TRD. The company expects to ship about 700,000 forged wheels this year, compared to about 520,000 units in 2010.

The wheel maker plans to invest an additional NT$400 million (US$13.3 million) to set up a new production line to the existing three to increase annual capacity to about one million forged wheels.

Forged aluminum wheels, according to Shih, save at least 5% in fuel compared to traditional aluminum counterparts, with the forged-wheel characteristics enabling better cooling and longer tire life by at least 20%.