Hello and good morning. Thank you very much for attending this event and thank you very much for following everything online. We are now going to start another investor day for Iochpe-Maxion . It's with great joy that we host you here today. It's a great opportunity for us to advance along with the company and establish this relationship with all of the board, show you all of the challenges, the opportunities, and share with you the connection between the market analysis, investors, and the company. Thank you again. Today we're going to have a presentation featuring the CEO with some updates concerning the strategy. Our CFO is also going to present information in regard to our finance status and some updates in regard to all of the business units with structural components and wheels. This is the schedule for today.
We have Pieter Klinkers today with us, our President and CEO for Iochpe-Maxion , Renato Salum, our CFO and Investor Relations Director, Mark Gerardts is our CEO for Maxion Wheels, and Renato Brighenti, the CEO for Maxion Structural Components. I'm Rodrigo Caraça and I will help you during this event. With this, I'm going to give the floor to our CEO, Pieter Klinkers. Pieter?
Thank you, Rodrigo. Okay, welcome to everybody again and thank you for coming. This time in a hotel, not in a plant. We're running out of plants close to São Paulo, so we thought it's better to do it in a hotel this time. Thank you very much for being here with us. Some of you, most of you, I hope, have seen me before, know a little bit who I am, but maybe some of you have not seen me before and do not yet know who I am. Maybe a few words about myself. Pieter Klinkers, I'm 55 years old since last week. I'm married, I have two kids, 10 and 13 years old. I have a Dutch passport, but I have an office in São Paulo here. My family lives in Holland. I like to be there as well.
Most importantly, our operations are around the world and I make an effort to visit as many operations every year that I can because I think it's important to see the people face to face and not only in the video. When you ask me, where are you or where are you from, I will tell you I'm global. Is that okay? All right. You can ask him, what the hell are you looking at, right? What are you doing there? This view. I think this photo was made in my old office in Germany and I was probably looking a little bit to the southwest to see where my office in São Paulo was. I think what I was doing there. Let's talk about Iochpe-Maxion a little bit, just to open it up.
I think all of you know, you know, we are the most global wheel supplier in the world. We try to produce about 50 million wheels every year. We are also making a lot of structural components that we do now only in North and South America. I think those two plants that you see there, we've talked about it a lot and you will hear a little bit more about it when Renato and Mark will present our new investment in Turkey for forged aluminum wheels and our investment in Castaños in Mexico. Overall, we have 33 plants. When we open our CVA plant, our Commercial Vehicle Aluminum Wheel Plant in Turkey, this will be 34 plants, 14 countries, about 17,000 employees all over the world. That's important. I think what's even more important are the products that we make in all these operations.
We are kind of proud and we are kind of excited about the many new and innovative and cost-competitive products that we're making all over the world. I hope you were able to see a few displayed already there. You will for sure hear more about it when Renato Brighenti and Mark Gerardts will present in a little bit. We already talked about the two businesses that we have. You may notice a little difference here. We used to talk a lot about divisions. I'm not a big fan of the word division because it comes from dividing. I don't like to divide. I like to put people together. Now we talk about businesses. I think actually we can do even more there.
I think there is more to be done from a synergetic point of view between wheels and components, mostly in the Americas because that's where we are with the two businesses. In fact, globally, when you think about organization, when you think about supply chain, when you think about sustainability, when you think about AI or digital, these are all things about product development, innovation. These are all things that I think we can do even more when we work even more together between those two businesses. There will be a little bit more emphasis, even more emphasis on this going forward than what we have done in the past already. Now, when we look on our operations around the world, these are not all because some of the dots that you see here are one country, but we have more operations in that one country, right?
Here you see back the 14 countries where we are. I'm sure there's many companies around the world that are more global. I'm also sure that at least from a wheels point of view, we are the most global company in that industry. This is a pretty good map. Only Russia is not there. Today we are not disappointed about that. There's a few dots here that are highlighted in blue for components and in orange for wheels. That, by the way, has nothing to do with Holland. Orange, this was already the case before I started in the company. Of course, in Mexico, you see the blue dot. We talked in here about more than average growth that we are planning in these locations.
Of course, in Mexico, this has to do with the expansion and the transformation of the plant in Castaños that, again, Renato will talk about more. Turkey, of course, as well, has to do with the new CVA plant that Mark will talk about more. You'll get an update. There is more that we're going to do. You will hear that story a little bit when you go forward. I think the last few years, we have been having a couple of key priorities. Two of those were one is delever the company. I think we're on track. We are making that happen. Second is, you know, make these two big investments happen. You know, when you think about Castaños and you think about the plant in Turkey, these are really, really big investments for a company of our size.
You may ask, again, after hearing about this a lot, why did you do that again? I ask myself sometimes, right? The answer is always the same. It was the right choice. It is the right choice. We're very happy that we're at the end of it because it's costing a lot of money. It was the right thing to do in North America because right now the market is down. It's a cycle. It's five years up and then it goes one or two years down. Right now, the good news is we believe we're at the bottom of that cycle. It will go up. When it does go up, we would not have had enough capacity. If we don't have enough capacity, I think the customers will not stop making trucks. They will find another supplier, right? That's not what we want.
We needed to be ready in time for when this cycle goes back up again. You will ask me, when does it go back up again? I ask that same question as well. It may still happen this year, may happen next year, but it will happen, right? We need to be ready and we will be ready with this investment for when that happens. In Turkey, you know, we make steel wheels for passcars. We make aluminum wheels for passcars. We make a lot of steel wheels for trucks. The market in Europe is shifting a little bit. Not too much, but it's moving a little bit from steel wheels for trucks to aluminum wheels for trucks. It used to be 10%. Then it's 12%. Then it's 15%. I think, you know, the market is growing a little bit faster for aluminum wheels than the overall market is growing.
We have one big competitor there. It's a publicly listed company. They always present these very nice EBITDAs that are a lot higher than my EBITDA. We become jealous and we say, you know, the market is going away a little bit from us. We need to also be in another market. By the way, it seems that that is a very profitable market. We want to be there as well. That's why we did it. Those two investments, these two dots, but there's more we can do. We call it internally, do more with less. That means do more projects with less CapEx. Not less CapEx overall, but spend it on many more small projects. Mark will talk a little bit more about that. Renato will talk about that because I think there's more we can do in Brazil. We will do more in Brazil.
We will invest a little bit more in our side rail capacity in Cruzeiro because the market is a good market for us in Brazil. It will grow and we want to be ready. Right. We will do that. This is nowhere near a similar investment as Mexico or Turkey. It's small, but it's meaningful. Same in wheels. I mean, the market is good in passenger car in Brazil. We love it. We like it. Very favorable to us. On top of that, we are doing good in that market. I think there's the room and there is, in fact, the need to do something more. For instance, redeploying some of our assets from around the world to Brazil to serve the market here is something we will do in Brazil.
This doesn't take a lot of CapEx, but in the last few years, when everything was focused on these two big projects, our list of low-hanging fruits became longer. We look forward to executing some of that low-hanging fruit. Same in India. We're not going to build a new plant, but we're going to do something more in our existing infrastructure. China, we already invested and we will start utilizing that capacity more in the next coming years. That's our plan. These are the regions where we will grow a little bit more and hopefully meaningfully more than average. In a nutshell, before I turn the word to Renato Salum, the world is dynamic. We can also say challenging. I prefer the word dynamic, right? There's a lot going on in the world. Geopolitics and et cetera. There's a lot of impact on industry, also on the automotive industry.
Our goal will be to be resilient and more than resilient. I will come back to that at the end of the, at the end of the day, at the end of the morning. For sure, our strategic global presence that we have, we have a global presence, but we have a local focus. We are not big exporters. We don't build a plant in China or a plant in India to then export those products all over the world. We serve the local markets. Right now, that's a, I think, a situation that is giving us a little bit of an advantage instead of a little bit of a headache. We do have a very complete portfolio. We have an innovative portfolio.
When you see some of those revenues that go more up in 2025 than what the market is going up, I think this has a lot to do with this. Therefore, we're proud to show the products. We will be proud to show you in the presentations from Renato and Mark what we're doing from a product portfolio point of view. I can guarantee you, no matter how dynamic the market is, we will be focused on shareholder value. I'm not only saying that in this meeting here where there's a lot of analysts and a lot of shareholders, but I'm saying that internally. I'm saying that everywhere, shareholder value.
To do that, we need to operate efficiently because whatever we do nice with new products and whatever we do nice from a footprint point of view, if we don't run our plants efficiently and more efficient every year, then it will not work. That's our base. We have been delivering strong productivity over the last years. We need to do it going forward. Our customers want it and we need it from a financial point of view. That's the base. We want to outpace the market. If the market doesn't grow and you grow 0.1%, that's not so very meaningful. We want to outpace the market. What that exactly means, let's see how that develops, but I think we're on a good track in 2025.
If we do that, if we have the operational efficiency and if we grow a little bit faster than the market shows, I think there is this potential for what I call smart growth. The growth in our existing facilities, not $80 million investment, but $3 million, $5 million, $8 million, and do 10 of those. We have quicker paybacks in our existing infrastructures. That's a little bit, in a nutshell, the plan that we will talk about with you more in detail in the presentations from Renato Salum, Brighenti, and Mark Gerardts. By the way, Mark is also Dutch. I apologize for that. Nobody's perfect. Renato, you want to take it from here?
Thank you, Pieter.
First of all, thank you very much for attending this event. Today, we have the main investors in the company and banks and investors. I remember that one year ago, I didn't know even 50% of who's here. Today, I can say that I know at least 90% of the ones who are here in this room. Each and every one of you, I believe I've already spoken to each of you during this year and several times. Thank you very much. I promise that next time we meet, I will have achieved the goal of getting to know everyone in this room. This is me. I am the company's CFO, and I am also the Investor Relations Officer for the company. I'm going to talk about the current scenario concerning vehicle production and light vehicles as well.
We are also going to talk about our financial performance. We're going to recall some of the 2Q 2025 earning results that have already been published. We just recently had our earnings results call. I'm also going to talk about the sustaining financial discipline of this company. In terms of global vehicle production, when we look to the chart on the left side, we see the projection for light vehicles. This is the global production, the numbers that have been updated in 2025 in August. We can say that in 2025, with the numbers excluding China, we see a growth of 1%. Obviously, this includes the production in China. Considering our participation in China is not that relevant, we exclude this number. On the lower portion of the screen, you see the numbers excluding China.
For light vehicles, we see a drop of 1% for 2025, which is close to flat when we look at our earning results. Obviously, we don't tell you how many wheels have been produced, but I can say that the quantity for the second quarter was a little bit larger than the second quarter. This does not reflect this -1% to date. I could say this is a little bit of a flat number. On the right side, you have the production of commercial vehicles, data from Global Data. Information here is not that updated anymore, not as much as the first chart, but still within the second quarter of 2025. Just to keep consistency of what we've been presenting to you every year, we decided to include this chart. We see a drop when we exclude the numbers from China, which is -5%.
Within these -5%, we include all the other regions in the world. We can say that for North America, we have a more prominent drop in terms of sales, but also this is part of our earnings results call for the second quarter. You could see this drop that we had for North America. Next slide, let's just recall some of the highlights for the 2Q 2025. We bring a net revenue of R$4.1 billion, a little bit above the gross profit. The net revenue for the first quarter, which was R$8 billion for the first half of 2025. As for the gross profit, we've reached R$535 million with a gross margin of 13%. We believe this is important, especially when we compare the previous quarters. Numbers were smaller, and we have managed to reach this 13% again.
Our EBITDA for the second quarter, we have brought the numbers to the historical numbers, 11%. The net income for the second quarter had a smaller impact, especially due to fiscal reasons. We had numbers updated in Turkey and in Mexico, and the currency is different from the local currency when we consider. Of course, there are tax-related situations. Assets are all in dollars and in euros. When there is valuation or devaluation of the local currency, we end up suffering some impact on your results, especially concerning tax because the net income is going to be decreased. For our first quarter, we had this impact, which was a little bit more to a neutral number, especially. For the first semester, we see R$98 million with a margin of 1.2%. As for the leverage, close to 2.38 fold.
We have been talking to you about the idea is to be close to two. This is the idea in the short term and also in the medium term, to be 1.5 fold. As a priority, and this continues to be of high priority for the company. When we talk about our net revenue, we have seen in the previous slide that we have reached R$8 billion in the first semester of 2025 compared to R$4 billion in the first semester of 2024. Of course, here we have the effect of the exchange rate. When we talk about a flat volume compared to last year, we see revenues that are higher than the first semester.
If for any moment we use the same conversion or exchange rates for the first semester of 2024 and for the first semester of 2025, we would observe the same volume of revenues for this semester. When we look at the year-over-year evolution of the revenues, it's important to mention the 16, almost 17 million we had in 2022. We had an event that was expected and we didn't have in 2023 and 2024. So far in 2025, we had an increase in the price of aluminum and steel. Aluminum, I'd say that compared to 2023, 2024, and 2025 that are more stable, the cost is 20% lower than aluminum. While for CRU, depending if we're in Germany or in the United States, it can get to 20% to 30%.
Since we have a pass-through system in our raw materials cost, when you talk about our company revenue, the $17 million in 2022 had to do with the cost of raw materials at that time. $8 billion, if we do a forecast multiplying basically by two, we would be talking about $16 billion that is still higher than 2024. Now, a little bit about our revenues per byproduct. What's worth mentioning and where we really see a difference would be between the second quarter of 2025 and the second quarter of 2024. We see a drop of 4 percentage points. From these 4 percentage points, I'd say that 3.8 percentage points are related to products in structural components for commercial vehicles in North America. That is why we see that change. As for the first half of the year, we're very much in line.
We have the exchange rates that end up favoring regions where we have euro or dollars as their main currency. That is why we see more difference in some products that are more concentrated in regions where we have a stronger currency. At the end of the day, this is the evaluation we have. As for the revenue by customer, the top one for the company is Daimler. We see for Daimler, we have gone from 13.9% per by client in 2024. We go to 11.7%. We have a drop of 2% that are related to the drop we had in North America. When we go to other clients such as Ford, we see the opposite. We see the second quarter of 2024, we see about 8.6% of the company's consolidated net revenue.
For the first quarter of 2025, we see 10% with an increase that is mostly related to the increase of volume of this client in Europe. The rest, we have a less variation, but we can clearly see an improvement in Europe. I would say that it's an increase in volume. Mark is going to talk a little bit more about that. That is reflected in the company's revenue and what you have seen in the semesters. The drop that we had in North America ends up reflecting in one of these important clients we have that is Daimler. This next slide, we have the company's EBITDA and EBITDA margin. We see for the second semester of 2024, we have R$389 million in terms of EBITDA for the second quarter and then R$454 million the second quarter of 2025.
When we compare the semester, we see a margin in the second quarter of last year. We have gone now back to our historic margin in the second quarter of 2025. When you look at the semester, we have a combination of a 9% EBITDA margin in the first semester and a 10% margin for the first half of 2025. When we look at the margin, it's important to mention that we have a combination at this time of the first quarter of 2024. We have 8.1%. In 2025, we had a result of 9.5% for the semester when we combined the two first quarters. When you look at the financial situation of the company, the financial position of the company, when you look at the left here, we see the composition of the company's debt per currency.
We have 44% of our gross debt in reais, 34% in dollar, 34% in euro. This is the gross debt. The company has a policy that we follow the progression of our gross debt and net debt. We try to have the net debt aligned with our revenue. Anytime we have changes, we will make decisions to make sure we have a balance in that sense. When we look at the right here, we see the maturity tower. The company has closed in June almost R$1.7 billion in available cash. We have credit lines that have not yet been used that add up to R$760 million. The total is R$2.4 billion. In terms of cash, last year, we understand that the cash generation for the company would be enough to face the payments that we have ahead of us. The company would not need any liability for that.
We are in a very comfortable position and it puts us ahead of other competitors that are going through financial difficulties. You see that the company's financial position is very solid. When you talk about 2028, we have the bonding maturity and an issue that we had in dollar, something that we issued in 2021. We did a swap to euro. This debt is now in euro, and it costs 3.49% a year. This is a debt that the company considers cheap compared to what we have today in the market. Obviously, the company, considering the possibility of a drop in interest rates in the United States, believes that the 3.49% we have been paying, during still 2026, we should maintain. We should think about changing that by the end of 2026 and the beginning of 2027.
Until then, we can combine two things, which is continue paying 3.49% and maybe a possibility of reducing up to 1% the total of interest paid in the United States, so that we can have a good moment for a new issuing of bonds for that period. When you look to the lower part on the right, you see the cost of our debts. In the second quarter of 2024, we had our debts in reais at a CDI plus 1.9% rate. We did some liability management during this time. Today, we have a more reduced spread with a CDI plus 1.2%, which is the average for the debt in Brazilian reais. When we talk about euros, we're talking about those bonds where we did a swap, and we now have a 3.49%. We swapped some debts we had in euros.
At that time, we had that 3.49%, but we had other debts for which the cost of the company was 4.2%. Today, we have only that one in 3.49%. For dollars, we have a so far, if I'm not mistaken, the overnight is 4.2%. The difference would be the spread. As a whole, when you look at the cost, we have about 9% consolidated cost, which I consider, which I say when we compare that to other companies, it's a cost that I would consider quite competitive for the company. On the bottom left, you see the short term. Today, the company has 6.3% of its debts in the short term, while last year, we had 17.5% for the short term. This is a very good scenario for the company.
This is something we have been working on for the last two years to be able to get to this financial position for the company. Here, we have a celebration of finnais before in the beginning of this year. I was very careful to change suits so I wouldn't be wearing the same one. The delivery here was a work that was very well done by our treasury. When we compare this work to other companies in Brazil, you see that we have really managed to achieve investments that we are going to do for the next four years, or what were four years. At that time, we have three years and a few months now. We were able to prove to finnais that we are really going to have sustainable growth, bringing new equipment that are going to increase the company's competitiveness compared to other companies abroad.
This is a very important point. We were able to raise more than R$300 million. What a system where you have reimbursable funding. We had reimbursements in the past of R$60 million, and now we have about R$300 million to be reimbursed in the next three years and four months at a 2.3% TR rate that is very good for the company and will help in the company's financial position. Considering all that, this was my last slide. I'm going to give the floor to my colleague, Renato. Thank you.
Good morning again. Thank you for being with us. My name is Renato Brighenti. I'm responsible for my structural components business. I've been with Maxion for 26 years. Let me move to this side. The idea for today, I have only nine slides.
My idea today is to give you talk a little bit about a strategy for the next years in our business. I'll start with a very simplified slide about our product portfolio. Although it is simplified, I think it manages to capture all segments and products. We provide light vehicles, commercial vehicles, and a whole range of products. It's hard to bring you the 100% of our reality. We're talking about more than 15,000 products that we produce in our business. That is why we have one of the first strategies, at least for the last three years, which is focusing on our core business. We know funding is finite. Money is finite. People are finite. We have to make intelligent, good decisions. When we remember last year, many of you were with us, we thought about bringing our business to historical margins.
I can tell you today that we are in the right path. We continue working strongly in that strategy. For us to be able to achieve and sustain those new margins, I'll start by telling you how we're going to do that. First, Pieter talked about this previously. We need to start by transforming our production lines, focusing on the core of our business, which are the side rails. The first one is related to a factory in Brazil. We are going to make small investments in the current lines, bringing new technologies to the existing equipment, and adding and bringing new equipment that will allow us to work more efficiently and be able to produce some products that today are not possible, that we can produce, not us and our competitors. I'm going to talk a little bit about that and the consequences.
Some investment in Brazil and a large investment in Latin America, in North America, and why that difference. Smaller investment in Brazil, larger one in North America. In North America, the side rails and truck market is about four times larger than the truck market in South America. That requires large investments. This is an investment we started about three years ago. It's quite complex. We're talking about a plant that is completely new and that will bring more technologies, more efficiency, and the capacity to produce new products, but will ensure capacity for the future. Our idea is that our clients have a greater perception of our business and of our products. You can ask if capacity will bring that perception. Yes, it will. One characteristic that is important about this product is that without it, you don't have a truck.
It's the first product you assemble in a truck. A truck can be produced without a mirror, without a panel, but it cannot be started. The production cannot be started without a side rail. Any clients, new or old or potential, aim to ensure available capacity for long-term contracts. To give you a little view on that, we'll show you a video about the plant that we started three years ago. In a smart way, we structured this investment a little bit differently. It's a new plant, but it's a modular plant divided into four stages. What you see now is the first stage ready. It's been ready for two months now. There are still three additional lines being built. They will allow us to work in parts.
With the CapEx, of course, the first part was much more difficult, but the next ones are going to be of shorter deadlines. Apart from this, this plant will allow us to be efficient when we are in low seasons. We are going to be more efficient in these periods. We will be able to phase these lines, keep our costs, especially the variable costs, low. This is important for our clients as well. There's more. It is important because of the long-term agreements, the clients are looking into finding future capability. This will allow us to work with three of the largest clients that we have with good contracts. Apart from the existing ones, the new clients as well. With new capacity and new technology, we'll be able to attract more clients. I have two examples for you. One, Harbinger. They manufacture hybrid trucks and electric trucks.
They came after us. We are the only ones who have the technology to design the product and the design that they need. These are products that were created for electric vehicles, which are different from what you see in other companies, which are adaptations only. We have something new. Class 4 and Class 6 vehicles are being served with these products. These are lighter vehicles, and we are betting on this segment. We have a smaller participation, a smaller share, and our participation is much larger than the ones that we have in large vehicles. The second client that we are working strongly with, I don't have the name here up on the screen, but that would be the main vehicle assembler in the world. We are just about closing deals with them now.
What is specific for flame reels for Class 8 trucks is that we are leaders for Class 8 trucks in North America. In case in the future, the electric vehicles are representative of our larger share in the market, we are going to be ready because we are not going to lose this market share. Of course, we are going to have more market share than today because part of it is still with the competition. What comes with it? I think I've mentioned this last year too. Electric vehicles need components that do not exist today, and we are creating a few things. We've assessed everything that can be done in this segment for now, and we are working with material and equipment that are not what we have in our core business today.
We started researching three years ago, asking the following question: How can we minimize and actually maximize to facilitate with a product that can meet the requirements and demand of our clients? With a partnership with Novelis, and I believe you all know Novelis, there is a product that we are going to allow into the second semester for the year. It's a battery box, 100% stamped in aluminum, and this is going to be developed by Novelis. A 33% lighter aluminum battery compartment, which is different from everything that is done in the market today. We can say that if we were challenging our engineers and our personnel, we are able to work differently and more intelligently using our own resources. Of course, it's important to have capacity investment because this is going to attract clients. Pieter has mentioned something else.
We are 100% focused on efficiency growth and continuous improvement, especially after last year with the new tools with artificial intelligence. We've focused on a few things. I have three examples of what is represented through these technologies. We are looking into bringing more quality and making our products stand out from competition. This is our strategy, trying to reduce our cash and capital in use. Of course, the profitability portal is something important. This is a very interesting work we carry out because everything that you see, all the decision-making processes during 18 months, is based on this profitability portal because it indicates where and what we need to work with, whether this is pricing or negotiation of items, components, process improvements. This guides us and sheds light on what we need to change.
Each product is worked on according to what is shown in this profit in this portal, and it reflects the investment we've been doing in the last 12 months. Of course, we cannot do this without people. I believe Pieter is going to resume this subject. People are in the center of everything we do. Artificial intelligence is said to steal job positions everywhere in the world. Maybe, yes, it will. It's going to get the jobs of those who do not use these technologies in their daily routine or for the decision-making of their processes. If they don't use it, they're going to have a hard time. This is why with Maxion, we have a system being implemented that not only allows people to work with the technologies, but also trains them on the technologies, and then they are challenged to really use that during their daily routine.
We've been really successful with this. We have a program called Azure. Last year, we had a very good and prominent adherence to this program. Many of the great ideas we received came from this program using artificial intelligence. Lastly, the same way people are challenged to be part of programs increasing capability, we are also challenged by the subject of sustainability, which is the reduction of emissions. Working with reductions of emissions within processes on scope one and two is easy. If we have infinite money and infinite resources, you can transform a company and bring the company to net zero. The challenge is to do this in a way that I not only have the reduction, but I can also transform this into a process that can reduce emissions, benefit the company, and benefit clients. These two examples are really important. First one, solar panels in Mexico.
This was the first plant in the auto parts sector with solar panels. This was created with 0% CapEx, with a partnership. It's reducing 5%- 6% in our consumption, or at least the price in consumption of electricity. We've managed to take Contagem plant close to zero waste for certification. We have changed the way we reduce CO2 on scope one and two with very low CapEx and a very interesting return of investment. These were the examples I wanted to share with you. Of course, I would have a lot more to say, but I believe the message was given. Some years ago, we decided to focus on the core business. We needed to make decisions, important decisions with the money that we have and maximize our results.
We are going to transform our operations and make them be more efficient to make our product and our ability stand out. We are going to deliver value. This is how we are going to grow, not only with the current customers, but also with the new ones. We are already managing to increase our participation in the market, not only in North America, but also in South America. We are getting ready for the future in regard to capacity. It's perceived very strongly by our customers. This is how we are going to transform the business. With this, I would like to thank you all and give the floor to Mark.
Good morning, everybody. I think Pieter already revealed a bit of a secret when he was talking about the nationality. Let me also quickly introduce myself, and maybe later on we have the opportunity to also interact face to face. Mark Gerardts, I've been with the company now for more than 10 years. In wheels business, I've had close to 20 years of experience. Since April of this year, in a position to represent also Maxion Wheels. Now, when you look at this picture, where was I looking at most probably? Was it the office where Pieter was looking to Brazil, or I was looking at the office in Germany? I'm being based in Germany, and from that role, traveling around the globe as well, visiting our plants across the globe. The agenda for today is that I would like to update you on our growth engines.
How are we achieving our growth in the market? When you achieve the growth, the key of the question is also how you execute that growth in the market, with a strong focus also into the operations in order to achieve our ambitious targets. Last but not least, when you have the right product, when you have the right strategy in place, you need to have the human capital also to make it happen. That's a bit the storyline for today. Let us start first. What is a bit the background? You see here one vehicle being the Ford T-Model, and you see also the cars of today. Maxion has been around for more than 100 years. For more than 100 years, we've been supplying the OEMs across the globe, whether it is in passenger car or in commercial vehicles.
That has resulted in the fact that we not only have a global footprint, that is very important, but that we really have become a very trustworthy engineering partner for those OEMs. That's very important for a component like a wheel. Today, the wheel is considered very much a design element for the vehicle. We should never forget that the wheel is also a safety part. Making sure that you can engineer these components in a perfect way is very key to our value proposition. When we follow the journey and our growth strategies, and that's what I will talk you through through the next couple of slides, whatever we do, and we can explain that also from the wheels being lined up at the backside of this meeting room, we always keep affordability in mind. We also want to add value to that market.
That's part on how we develop, whether it is in the existing business, whether we use the existing technologies to develop new segments, or whether we use it for new applications. That's kind of the core of the matter so that we use the assets in the right and proper way. I think Pieter discussed in his opening speech a local for local approach. With the experience that we have in the market, we have a local footprint. I think in today's dynamic environment, or you can call it a complex business environment, it's very good to have that local for local opportunity and to serve our customers globally in that perspective. Last but not least, it's all about your operational excellence in the end because you need to achieve your productivity targets. You need to make sure that you work also with the future.
When you talk about digitalization, when you talk about artificial intelligence, you need to be on top of those trends and make sure that you can process them into your industrialization. When you then talk about our transition, I think five years ago when the pandemic hit in, we had to cope with a lot of fluctuations in the volumes. We had inflationary pressures. We've had lack of components. I think the big transition we made is we've been able to adapt our organization to react very swiftly to these kinds of situations. That's very important because I think this is going to be the new norm going forward. In nice words, people call that these days resilience. I think it's very important to be able to adapt your operations and to adapt your structures as quick as you can.
When we talk about affordable products, we want to show you a couple of examples of how we are approaching the market. It's very important that we start from the affordability and value-add perspective. As an example, especially in the steel business, you can already see from this example that when we compare first half year 2025 compared to first half year 2023, we've been able to grow our conventional steel wheels business with 8.5%. However, with the focus that we've had, because a couple of years ago, we said, you know, we have to look again to the steel wheels because the steel wheels was being considered ground wheel with a couple of ventilation tools. If you can add styling to that wheel, you've got to combine the best of both worlds. We have a lineup at the back end of the meeting room to show you.
In the meantime, we've been able to grow this segment much more than we've been able to grow the business on the steel side with 27.5%. That means we're adding value to the organization. This look again is not only from our side. I think when you look at the real market needs, when you ask the questions today to OEMs, the big question today is how can you produce an affordable vehicle? They need to look again to those components and see if some items can be changed for more affordable solutions. That has been driving the business. We're supporting that also with a campaign that we're running. That looks totally different seen in the past. I think we have some examples there. We're very proud that we can start to market this much more. It's also very scalable in our existing steel facilities.
Now, when you look on what we're doing today, you also need what you're going to do in the future. We want to bring to you two examples of where we are developing. One wheel, we are also one of the wheels. Just a second. All right. This seems to be better. I think one technology that we're showing is basically where we again bring two parts of the world together. We have the experience on the aluminum side, which delivers the design element. Then you can bring steel into the equation, which gives you not only a new innovation, but it also will add functionality at the very end. We call that today Maxion Fusion because you bring the best of two worlds together. At this moment in time, we're running some vehicle tests with two OEMs in different parts of the world.
At the moment that those vehicle tests show positive results, we will be able to scale that process into our various locations. We're very excited to follow up on this project and to move forward. Now you think, what does it mean, NVH? Those who drive electrical cars today, it really changes the way you're driving. Most of the people enjoy the silence in the cars. When you develop the cars, today there is a lot of attention to how you can reduce the noise in the car. NVH stands for noise, vibration, and harshness. There are many ways how you can innovate on that topic to reduce noise that enters through the cavity into the vehicles.
Through our network, where we are cooperating with the biomanufacturer and with OEM, we have been able to develop a wheel that has the ability to exactly break those frequencies in the wheel that itself increases the comfort in the car. By the fourth quarter of this year, one of the North American OEMs will launch a vehicle with steel wheels that adds this functionality and better. We're very much looking forward to SOPing this product. Similar to all the other innovations, it's very scalable. We have the ability to produce those similar wheels in all of our steel locations. We have some really exciting stuff going forward. When we talk new applications, it's really about looking at how you can use the existing technologies and apply them into different segments. On the picture, you see an example of a forklift truck. There are more opportunities there.
Over the past couple of years, we've been able to basically diversify our business and enter into more different niches and new applications. As you can see, some of those applications are really starting to take traction. We've been able to sell already more than 1.3 million wheels in light rail applications, particularly in the middle, but also in the area of recreational vehicles. When we look on today's global environment, more and more clutches are being spent on defense. We've been in this industry for many years. More structure in place do you have to be able to use your city business in this segment. Pieter talked about new applications, talked about our new plant in Turkey, Fortune Aluminum Wheels. In the commercial vehicle sector, our company has traditionally been very strong. We had a market-leading position in that segment.
We also, let's say, could not supply the complete portfolio because there is a certain portion in the market that is choosing for Fortune Aluminum Wheels because payload really matters. You think here about the liquid trailer. You think here about specific truck applications or construction applications. Having now the opportunity to build a new plant that will be SOP by the end of the year is completing our assortment that really helps us to build even stronger relationships with our commercial vehicle OEM and to really leverage not only the steel business but really our customer relationship. It's very exciting. I think it's a technology, it's a new technology for us. Over the last couple of years, we've developed the technology in-house. We're confident that we will be able to SOP that plan at the end of the year.
We'll be adding also what is called surface treatment during the course of 2026 to grow this plan going forward. To show you the progress and that it's really happening, just a small video of the plan and progress. We're
Getting very close. Still, a lot of pieces of equipment are being installed, and soon we will really start to manufacture the first wheels of the tool of the process. That's really going to be the most exciting moment for this investment that is going on. Definitely looking forward to the launch of this plant.
The last engine, it's about, you know, continuously looking in the market what is coming. When we talk about new customers, you already said, hi, more than 100 OEMs already. As I referred to earlier on, it gives us a lot of input also on the requirements from those customers. Back again to the landscape kitchens. New players have come to the market. If we most probably look five years ahead of today, again we will see a change in the landscape. As an organization, we really need to stay on top of those new OEMs that are popping up. Today, many of them are coming from China. With our footprint and office also in China, we have the ability to really serve those Chinese OEMs with a strong focus on those Chinese OEMs that really also have the intention to build a global footprint outside of China.
That is another opportunity that lies ahead of us. We're really starting to work closely with them. Our target is to really capture share with those Chinese OEMs using our new expertise and using our local knowledge, which they're lacking. That is also translated into the fact that when you start to compare your new business goals, most of the time, those are programs that will come to market two or three years from now, that we've been able to increase our new business gains. When you compare first half of year 2025, first half of year 2024, it's 7%. It's just a solid foundation that you're going forward. Now, when you talk about the growth engine, and when you talk about how you execute and do the plans, I want to dedicate just very quickly a few slides on how we bring this to life in the plant.
One of the key topics here, it's really about the operational excellence. How do we do that? That means in order to improve our processes, we really make sure that we have dedicated productivity plans per plant. Absolutely. We closely follow up with our organizations. That goes hand in hand with disciplined CapEx management. It goes hand in hand with a structured approach, what we would call Lean Six Sigma, that really helps us to follow up on projects in a structured way. As you can see, and I think we're very strong in this area, we have already more than 2,200 belts in the organization with more than 130 being black belts. That really helps us to keep on having a structured approach to reach those productivities. This is supported with what I would call high-impact, low-CapEx.
Through the process of natural working things, we scale and we have many small projects every year, close to 700 or 800, where people come up with ideas that we can share across the plants. That really helps us in an additional way to achieve those productivities that we really need going forward. Similar to Renato, when you then talk about, okay, if you look towards the future, there is no way that we can neglect the digitalization of our processes. That means it's not only that we need to embrace absolutely digital transformation, we need to work with the data. Data-driven manufacturing processes need to be embedded in every energy, and we're doing so. We're also being recognized for that in the markets. We're doing that not only in a couple of locations, like you were seeing already through the funding of the FINRA here in Brazil.
We're doing that across the globe using our standard approach. To demonstrate that, we'll have a last video for you showing this, how we execute that in our location in India. What it shows is that if when you can grasp the data at your equipment and even of your processes, then you really have also a strong foundation towards the future. When you look at the opportunities that are out there in AI, whether it will be in maintenance or preventive maintenance, or think about visual detection, you need to have these kinds of data in order to make the next step. That's what we're working for. That's what we're looking for towards the future. All of that. Finally, least, obviously, it's almost a lot to show results.
If you have a growth plan, if you have the right product in place, if you can excel in your operations, sliding forward, you'll have an engaged workforce. In the end, they're driving the organization, and they're capable of generating a lot of new innovatives that we can then filter and implement into the organization. We're very proud that we have the human capital in place and also have the ability to develop new skills. With that, attract and retain also new talent going forward. As a summary, we've been able to adapt our organization to today's dynamics and being capable of being resilient in this market, yes, and able to outpace the market and to grow our businesses. I think with the innovations that we have ahead of us, that is the way forward.
Yes, we continuously need to invest in the right talent to make sure that we can secure also that basic training. With that, we can handle the GPS. Thank you very much. That was a lot of components and even more ways. You guys are still okay? It's a couple of slides between me and Trustee and Trustee Patrol. I'll be back in two or three more topics before I wrap it up. Sustainability. We talk about that a lot, and rightfully so. Our Chairman of the Board talks about that a lot, rightfully so. It's a very important topic. It's not only a necessary topic, but it's a nice topic. It's a good thing for the world. I think we believe it can only work if we make it affordable.
You know, if it's only coming through governments that are scrutinizing the industry by forcing them to pay penalties if they don't comply, etc., short term, that will work. Long term, midterm, long term, we believe that we need to come up with solutions that are both more efficient and more sustainable. If we make that happen, then we really get some traction in the world. For sure, in Maxion, we don't have the opportunity to invest a lot of CapEx on making it happen. We must make it happen, but we will do it in an affordable way. That's our stride when we talk about sustainability. People, you know, sometimes, and now I come a little bit more to the end, a little bit more informal. Yeah, my kids, now they're 10 and 13. A few years ago, they asked me, "Papa, what are you doing?
You're always gone, and you probably don't know what you're doing, right?" I got away by telling them, you know, "I'm going to make a wheel, a few more wheels," right? That was good a few years ago. Today, they don't take that anymore. They say, "But what do you really do, right, when you go to all these places?" You think about it. I think what I try to do and what my team tries to do is to make a good job of the team, right? That's what Renato has been talking about, what Mark has been talking about. We have more than 40 nationalities. We have 33 showing 34 operations in 14 countries. These people need to be developed. These people need to be trained. These people need to be engaged, right? We are very proud about our engagement score that are benchmarks for the industry.
I think a lot of the time that the management spends during the day when they travel around the world is to try to make a better and better team globally in this company. Not only do we work with the people in the company, of course, we work with a lot of external people as well. I don't want to miss the opportunity in this conference to talk about the JASPER Foundation. This is pretty well known, I believe, in the Americas, first in South America, then we expanded to Mexico. Last year, some of you may know, some of you may remember, we expanded this program internationally, let's say, and started in India. It was very successful and we are launching the second program there in India.
I can also tell you that we're already working on launching a next program outside of the Americas in the EMEA region. This is just an example of what we do. We don't brag about it too much. We don't talk about it so much as we talk about results in the market and all of that. This is also very nice, just like sustainability, and it's a very necessary thing to do as well. I think Stan Jasper's father once said, if we're only good at making the business better, we're not good enough. He also needs to make a little effort in seeking our social responsibility. That's what we do as well, besides trying to deliver all the numbers that we talked about with you, Zach, and that we will continue to talk about. Now, coming to the end, two more slides.
I hope that you take away from this one and a half hours that we believe, even though the markets are dynamic, are challenging, there's a lot going on, we believe we are in a more favorable position than some of our competitors, than some other suppliers with a strong global footprint and an agile or flexible operations and an agile workforce, flexible workforce. We will focus a little bit more on doing more of us less, okay, less CapEx projects. We talked about that, posing components as well as in wheels. Onto smaller, but quicker payback projects, more applications, more new products. We've worked on that a lot the last 10 years, and we will work more on that in the next coming years, and more AI and digital transformation.
Last but not least, I repeat, we will continue to drive it, to grow, and to strengthen our balance sheet and deliver the shareholder value. The markets are dynamic, and that's a fact in life. Sometimes it's a little bit more sunny, sometimes it's a little bit more rainy. I can guarantee you that Maxion, no matter how the weather is, we will try to perform as we promised to do. Now, coming to the very last slide, talking about sunny days and rainy days, I think this is one of Brazil's heroes, right? Mr. Ayrton Senna. I thought about this. I saw this. I thought about that he got down the ride there. I don't want to contest it because we got in a ride with my son, 10 years old, and he's driving in the local karting championship, which is very different than riding Formula One World Championship.
He told me something. He said, "This guy is late. He's 10 years old. He started as five or six years old, right? Not nine years old like he did last year. But he's getting there. He's becoming faster." He said, "Papa, I actually like the rain. I'm not too dry." He said, "How come? I don't like the rain, right?" "No, but I like the sunny days. I come from Holland. There's not a lot of sunny days. I like it." He said, "Oh, I like the rain because then I can do things different. The guys that are already doing four or five years, you know, I can catch up quicker because they also don't have so much experience in the rain. I like the rain." I saw this phrase from Ayrton Senna. I said, "Yeah, that's true. It's not only true in racing and karting.
It's true in business as well. There can be sunny days, and you know, we like that, and everybody goes faster on a sunny track. Times can also be rainy. When it rains, we can make it with us. I can promise you that when they try in Maxion, we continue to make a difference, whether it's sunny or also when it's raining." I hope you enjoyed this conference. I hope you enjoyed the many wheels and components that you saw. I hope you just get with us and have many questions that I hope we will also be able to answer. I think we go to questions and answers at the next slide.
We're now going to start our Q&A session. Please feel free to pose your question in Portuguese or English.
Pieter to Renato, to.
To Pieter, to Renato, just raise your hand, state your name, and then you're going to have a microphone to pose your question, okay?
Good morning, Pieter.
Good morning, Pieter, everyone. Rodrigo, everybody. I'm Flavio Bica, Investor Manager from Investors for the Future. Congratulations on your presentation. I like the tone. Welcome, Pieter. I was happy to hear this energy from you, the long-term relationship with the stakeholders. We purchased Iochpe shares in 2018 after an event from [IP-MAC] , just like this one. When they showcased some of the products, I was really impressed with the quality at that time. Some years later, the products are still here. The quality is still the same, focused on innovation. I think it's really nice. The story has shown that Iochpe still had some things to do, and it was emphasized by Pieter really well. Having good product is not enough if you do not execute everything with a product in an orderly fashion. I think it was the tone that you set for the presentation.
You went right on target, and your diagnosis was really aligned with doing more with less. When I purchased the share, it cost less. Of course, there was some loss in the capital. As a shareholder, we have this fiduciary obligation of looking for the return. I was really happy to see that you were in this pursuit of this historical margin. You perceived all of the nuances, the market volatility, things that the company does not have any control over. I have one question. Within all of these challenges and everything that the company is exposed to, and in view of everything that the company has already delivered in regard to profitability, and remembering that the EBITDA margin is not profitability. It's about profitability. It is the cost of capital and return of capital to the shareholder. We need ROE that is in alignment with the cost, right?
My question then is, many companies share and disclose this piece of information. How can you see the deadlines so that we can reach that return of investment to the shareholders, the two-digit that is aligned with the cost of capital? In view of everything that the company can do despite market conditions, what are you going to do to get there? What can we expect for the coming years? What is within the company's scope, and what we can do so that we can get to these returns to the shareholders because it's been a harsh time for the.
Thank you. Thank you for the support, Renato. I'm learning Portuguese, so I could understand most of what you say, and the rest, Renato was filling in for me. That's a very good question. That's a very good challenge that many companies have, including ours. I think, when you listen to what we were trying to say, when we say we want to do more with less and we want to have new products, those are important things. It's not just a slide on a piece of paper. If you say we want to do smaller projects, 10 projects with $5 million instead of one project with $50 million, and those projects need to have two years payback, three years payback, maximum four years payback, that's different than what we had to do in the last years, right? That's one thing.
We want to do more projects with quicker payback, less CapEx, quicker payback. If you talk about new products, first of all, it's necessary to grow a little bit faster than the market. If you want to share a gain in a very competitive market, it's very difficult if you don't decrease the price to the lowest price that is there in the market, which is not something that is very good for your profitability. Our aim is to come up with new products that give a value to customers that they don't have yet. I'm not saying these new products will be the only one for the next 10 or 20 years, but at least for some time, we may be the first one. We may be the only one. Those products, of course, you want to have a little bit better return than on your standard product.
Doing better projects, doing quicker projects, and having new products that customers like and customers need and they don't have yet, I think those are two ways of trying to improve the margin a little bit further and decrease the cost that we need to make to make those volumes happen. At the same time, I also believe that right now, cost of capital, we are competitive, but it's kind of expensive, right? Our hope is also that over the next one, two, three years, those costs of capital will rather go down than go further up. It's a combination of both. The cost of capital needs to come down a little bit more, and our margins need to improve a little bit further. That's our target. That was our target from 2023 to 2024. It was our target from 2024 to 2025. We are committed to the target.
That will also be our target for next year.
Thank you, Pieter. Just to finish, trying to understand, one year and a half from now, you said that margin EBITDA at historical levels would be reachable, and you delivered. Congratulations. Again, I would like to listen in some way how is the time to reach the adequate return of shareholders. That's the main goal we as shareholders will like to see.
I don't have a date for you, but I think we're on the right track. I think we're on the rumo certo. Of course, we need to see how the market develops, right? I think some markets have been developing a little bit more negative in the second half of this year than people were originally expecting, saying about North American truck, for example. I also believe that everybody would agree that at some point in time, shortly, this market will come back. We are ready for it with this investment that we talked about in Castaños. I can't give you an exact timing, but I think our target will definitely be on the short term to get to such a situation. Thank you.
[Foreign language] Pessoal, bom dia.
Good morning. Gabriel Rezende from BBA Itaú. Two questions. If you could please comment briefly, what is possible, of course, how everything that we heard should convert into CapEx in comparison to last year? Are we talking about $500 million? I'd like to understand the conclusion of these projects in the coming months, the new projects that you were talking about for 2026. How do you revert everything into CapEx? In regard to the company leverage, you've commented on 1.5 fold next year, right? Can we get to two? How can we think of the payout of the dividends of the company moving as leverage gets close to the numbers that you want for next year? Thank you.
First of all, on the CapEx, I think the amount of CapEx that we're spending this year is the right amount. We can afford it, and it's the right thing to do for the company. It's just a different allocation that I'm talking about in 2026, 2027. I'm not saying we're going to cut CapEx in half or reduce significantly the CapEx. We're going to spend it in a little bit different way instead, maybe 10 smaller projects. At the same time, we also need to invest in our plans to reach the productivities that we need to be competitive, right? All these things will add up to a similar amount of CapEx, maybe a little bit less, maybe a little bit more, a similar amount of CapEx, but a different allocation of CapEx.
Your next question, I think when you have this amount of CapEx and you have this kind of volume trend that we're seeing in 2025 and that we certainly want to continue in 2026, I think we will be reaching an adequate amount of cash being generated to come to leverage that is significantly lower than what we had two, three years ago. We are really on the right track there. Now, to tell you exactly the same kind of answer, when will we reach two or when will we reach 1.5? Our aim is to reach something between 1.5, two times on the short term. I'm talking within the next 12 months. That's our aim. What are we going to do when we reach this kind of level? What are we going to do strategically, right? Are we going to buy back shares?
Are we going to provide more dividends? Those are all options that are on the table. I think we need to wait a little bit more. We came from a very high leverage after COVID. We made our way down to 2.38 in the last quarter. I think we're on track to do better in the next quarter, in the next quarters. We will come back to you and say, based on the results we're reaching now, this is our strategic plan going forward. Right now, the strategic plan for management is to do what we said on the presentation. We want to do this quicker payback project, and we want to focus a lot of productivity on our plans and delivering new products.
Great, thank you.
Hi, good morning. I'm Fernanda from XP. Thank you for the space. Thank you for this event. My question is in regard to the competitiveness and the scenario. You've spoken about the strategies with structural components. You mentioned having the productive capacity to meet the demand of the market when it gets back on track. In regard to wheels, you've mentioned innovation and the new segment of products. I would like to know from you how you see competition behaving in regard to strategy. Do you see competition following the same direction and the same category of products, or you don't? Do you see something different coming from them? How do you see competition behaving in regard to the demand, which is a little bit uncertain, especially for North America? How do you see them?
First of all, thank you for the question. We don't have all the insights about competition that I would like to have, right? We have more insight about our own company. This is a very competitive world. Talking about the racing, I think this is not less competitive when you talk about the automotive industry. To say, no, we will beat the competition, we will be better than competition everywhere all the time, that would be naive. It's not the case. Our competition, some competitors are really good. Some competitors are struggling a little bit more. I think if you see one trend, this competition is that it's more China. The Chinese are expanding not only on the OEM side. The Chinese are also expanding on the supplier side. You see the same for wheels, not so much for components at this moment. It is more of a local business.
For wheels, we see that around the world. I don't think we have a major issue with that. We love the Chinese OEMs, especially when they start producing outside of China, because that's where we can supply them. In China, we are there a bit reverse more. We have the relationship, but we don't have the value. The Chinese export vehicles, there's a lot of competitor wheels on those vehicles that we don't have that market. If they come to Europe or Turkey or Brazil or Africa, we are there. We can supply them. That's a competitive advantage. We beat Chinese competition that way. The Chinese suppliers also come. That's a fact of life. I think if they have to cook with the same water, I always say internally, I think we can be competitive. Will they be good? Yes.
I think we've proven the last 100 years that we can be competitive. I don't believe they will suddenly have a very different component or a very different wheel. They will come up with innovations as well. I think if anything, we are having more than average new products, better than average new products. We will not be alone in this world, in this competitive world. I think we're on the right track from a competitiveness point of view. Keep in mind, one word, it's going to be more China. Already happened in China. 27 million vehicles. Chinese will move also outside of China.
Good morning, Iochpe team. Thank you, Pieter, Renato, Mark. My question is in regard to China. Of course, this is one of the most strategic pillars for the company, although they are not much of a representative with Iochpe. They have a relevant CapEx in Asia. India, along with them, between 2019 and 2021, at the beginning, we had a government program in place, which was something anti-evolution, with the purpose of reducing excessive capacity of offer and price war. I'd like to understand from you what is your midterm and long-term view in markets like China and India, and if this government program changes anything in your strategy with Iochpe. Thank you.
It's a very interesting question. Thank you very much. I think China and India are very big. That makes them a little bit the same, but they're also very different, right? If you look at China, it's a very, very important country, continent for the automotive industry. However, Iochpe is relatively small in China when it comes to operational presence. That being said, the fact that we have an office in Shanghai, that we have engineers there, that we have commercial people there, that we have purchasing people there, that we have the connection to the Chinese OEMs, that's a very, very big advantage. Besides being there, making aluminum wheels and making truck wheels, I think the mere presence in China gives us a competitive advantage over some of our competitors around the world that are operating on a more local level.
If you operate in Europe or you operate in Brazil, you don't have that connection to China, and you will only learn when they come to you. We already have that connection. For me, besides being in China, but in a small presence, that is a very big advantage that we have. Our aim is not to become the biggest supplier in China. If we would have wanted that, we should have done it 50 years ago, 30 years ago, right? It's too late. That's done. The price war in China doesn't affect us really. It affects us maybe indirectly because customers are making money in China. Therefore, they're making less money globally. Therefore, there's a little bit more pressure on suppliers. Everybody has to deal with that. Directly, we're not so much affected by that phenomenon. Yes, and it put a lot.
I mean, there are 100 wheel suppliers in China. I think there are 90 of those that really don't play in the same ballpark as we do. There are maybe five that are really, really good. They are our best competitors. I've been talking about that a couple of minutes ago. They go around the world, and we will be competing with them. We have been competing with them. It's not new. It's already happened. When you go to India, that's a little bit different. We are in India since decades, and we are pretty big in India. We want to be big in India. We've been investing in India. You saw dots in my chart at the beginning. We will continue to invest in India. This is a growing market. It's a very big population. The density of vehicle ownership is much lower than in China.
The potential for growth in India, which is our strategy, right? If we go to India, we go to India for India, not to export a lot from India to wherever in the world. I think that's a big opportunity for our company. We know how to do business in India. We've been there for decades. We have been investing. We are investing. I think, you know, we can compete very well in India. Our results are good, and we look forward to further growth in that market.
Thank you. This is Gabriel Tinem from Santander. Two questions on my side. The first is linked to structural components. I'd like to understand better your strategy for the segment. If you could elaborate a little bit more on the capturing of new clients. Second, in regard to Europe and its market. You've mentioned in our last call that you were gaining market share and some of the players were in a harsh situation financially. I would like to understand INCA and the capture of new clients and the new approach in general lines, if possible. Thank you.
Thank you. Now, replying to in regard to structural components and market share and new clients, I think that I've mentioned two important examples on electrified vehicles. Although electrification in trucks is not moving forward on the same pace as light vehicles, recently we actually saw a decrease in this demand.
We believe that in the long term or midterm, especially in inferior classes, there is great opportunity. They have a competitive advantage over combustion engines. We are going to have a nice market share, and we're going to remove some of it from the traditional OEMs. As for new clients, if you don't have a capacity, you're out of the market. I believe that at the right time, about three years ago, we decided to focus on the core and where we wanted to grow and invest our money. I think we made a right decision. I cannot talk about our competitors. I don't have information about that. Traditional customers for whom we do not provide products yet, when we started putting to the market the investments we are making for the future, they're thinking us, there is great potential for the future as these capacities come up.
We have a possibility of increasing our share in North America and South America. The question about Europe was for me also about components, or do you want to hear about wheels?
I think you will go into some remarks in the earnings call, the questions in the earnings call. I think our customers like our stability as a company. Our customers like our products. I think our customers like our performance. You know, like I said about China, there are many suppliers there. Same in Europe, there are many suppliers, and some are doing good. I hope we are one of them. I believe we're one of them. Some are, you know, having more trouble. I don't want to speculate too much about that. Of course, when customers need our support, we are ready to provide that support. You saw that happening a little bit at the end of last year, beginning of this year.
One thing that we need to keep in mind, if you win market share or you change your market share, in our industry, this is not something that changes from one quarter to a quarter, right? The lead time to develop a new product is between six months and two years. Once you win something or once you lose something, it's not forever, but it's going to stay there for a little bit longer time. We are confident that we're in a good position in Europe.
Thank you. Alberto from UBS Southside. I'd like to ask a question. Congratulations on your presentations and good luck to your son in car racing. I'd like to ask you about tariffs in the U.S. We have about one-third of soft tariffs, one month of full tariffs. What is the pricing environment in North America, Mexico, the U.S.? How are the competitors reacting? Are they trying to produce more there? How are you working with this dynamic with different costs? Thank you.
Thank you very much, Valeria. That's a tough question to answer in one minute, right? We can spend the whole day on discussing tariffs and their impacts on various players. When you look at Maxion, again, we are not a big exporter. We do export some products from India, from Turkey, from Mexico. Now, Mexico, we are USMCA compliant, and so should not have a big impact. Also, most of our contracts are exports, and so the direct impact of the exports we have is very limited in the company. I am always concerned about the indirect impact. We didn't see much of that so far, but I'm anxious to see how industry volumes will develop. Hopefully, they stay strong, relatively strong as they are in Pascar, not in truck. We hope that volume to go back up.
The indirect impact of tariffs is probably going to be more important for us to watch than the direct impact of tariffs. When you talk about how are our competitors trying to manage this and how are we trying to manage this with customers, of course, when you have a global footprint, you have more possibilities to move around product, and we are doing that. Our competitors are doing that to the extent that they can, that they have multiple operations, and also to the extent that it makes sense because some of these tariffs seem to be there for the longer term. Take Europe and the U.S., 15%. Some of the tariffs that are out there right now, people don't know if they will stay. How long will it stay? What will happen to the war between Ukraine and Russia when that ends?
Will the Indian tariffs go back to 25%, now being 50%? I think people are trying to make decisions for the tariffs that seem to be staying there for a longer period of time. People mean either suppliers when they have possibilities to relocate product or customers when they have the possibility to relocate product, maybe a different supplier. You see those things happening. When the tariffs are fluid, I think people are more on a wait-and-hold scenario, and they want to see how things play out over the next months or so. From a wheel point of view, from a components point of view, we don't see a lot of movement of people building new factories in the U.S. in order to avoid tariffs having to be paid by either suppliers or customers.
I can't tell you if that's not coming because I can't look into their video conferences, but we don't see that happening at this moment. People are more juggling around suppliers around the world. Customers are doing that. Suppliers are doing that to the extent possible.
Okay. With this, we'll be closing our Q&A session. I'd like to call Sandra from [IP-MAC] and Renato Salum. I want to thank them for the partnership of 25 years. Thank you.
Thank you. Good morning, everyone. I'm going to speak very quickly. [IP-MAC] has turned in 2025. We have turned 55 years old, and it's been renewing very much as Maxion has done. In [IP-MAC] site, which is brand new, you see many courses, many events, and we have tomorrow a web meeting to talk about sectorial and economic perspectives. I'm here to congratulate Iochpe for the 25-year partnership we have, talk about how important this still is, and it shows how clear the company is in giving all relevant information for the market about the good governance. This meeting shows that we have a large number of executives of the directors here.
I hope to be here next year to give you the seal for 25 years. I want to thank you for the partnership between Iochpe and Iochpe-Maxion [IP-MAC] and for all the information given to the shareholder market. Thank you for all the information, and I hope that next year that remains and you continue to have very good results. Once again, congratulations. I want to give you the seal and congratulate the CEOs and officers.