Superior Industries International Inc
The principal business of Superior Industries International, Inc. is the design
and manufacture of aluminum wheels for sale to original equipment manufacturers
("OEMs"). We are one of the largest suppliers of cast aluminum wheels
to the worlds leading automobile and light truck manufacturers, with wheel
manufacturing operations in the United States and Mexico. Products made in our
North American facilities are delivered primarily to automotive assembly operations
in North America for global OEMs. Our OEM aluminum wheels primarily are sold
for factory installation, as either optional or standard equipment, on many
vehicle models manufactured by BMW, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. ("FCA"),
Ford, General Motors ("GM"), Mitsubishi, Nissan, Subaru, Tesla, Toyota
and Volkswagen.
We have gone through a transformation over the last several years as we have
shifted our manufacturing base from higher cost to lower cost sources. With
the diversification and increased demands for more customized premium wheels,
we have made investments in engineering and design. With these investments,
we are enhancing our capabilities to become a leader in premium wheels. We have
doubled the wheel finishes that we offer in the last couple of years and we
have developed patents, which is all part of our strategic evolution to become
a competitive full line manufacturer of aluminum wheels. Another part of our
evolution was to move our corporate office to Southfield, Michigan to be closer
to many of our customers so we can further strengthen relationships and partner
with them to design world class products. With the addition of our new facility
in Mexico we have expanded our manufacturing capacity to allow for growth in
the next couple of years. We continue to explore and implement operating improvements
to further expand manufacturing capacity with relatively low capital investment.
We are also investigating acquisition opportunities to further enhance the value
and drive the growth of our business. The charts below show our major customers
and our manufacturing capacity by headcount split between lower cost and higher
cost sourced labor.
Our industry is mainly driven by production levels in North America and to a
much lesser extent in South America. The North American production level, in
2015, was 17.4 million vehicles, a 3 percent, or 0.5 million unit, increase
over 2014. We track annual production rates based on information from Wards
Automotive Group. The North American annual production levels of automobiles
and light-duty trucks (including SUVs, vans and "crossover vehicles")
continue the trend of growth since the 2009 recession. Current economic conditions,
low consumer interest rates and relatively inexpensive gas prices have been
generally supportive of market growth and, in addition, the relatively high
average age of vehicles on the road appears to be contributing to higher rates
of vehicle replacement.