Accuride Announces New Business Wins

LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Accuride Corporation (NYSE: ACW), a leading supplier of components to the North American commercial vehicle industry, announced that its “Fix and Grow” actions to restructure and upgrade core operations have improved operational performance and enabled the company to secure new long-term agreements for steel and aluminum wheels. Accuride made the announcement during a news briefing today at Heavy Duty Aftermarket Week 2013 in Las Vegas.

“The majority of our program to restore dependable operational performance across Accuride is now complete and already yielding gains in product quality, delivery, lead-times, pricing and competitiveness”

In 2011, Accuride launched a two-year, $150 million investment program to restructure and expand its core wheel and wheel-end component operations, and upgrade the capabilities of each of its four business units. These investments included, among others:

$55 million for additional aluminum wheel capacity,
more than $35 million to restructure and upgrade its Gunite business, and
$21 million in environmental and safety-related facility upgrades.

Today, with its aluminum wheel manufacturing investments complete, Accuride has doubled its production capacity for forged aluminum wheels, while Gunite’s program to install advanced machining and assembly equipment, upgrade casting and consolidate its manufacturing footprint is 90 percent complete. Accuride also plans more than $30 million in steel wheel facility upgrades during 2013-15 and will announce details of its 2013 capital program later this year.

Accuride’s actions to restore the competitiveness and dependability of its core North American operations are resulting in marked gains in quality, delivery, and lead-time performance, which are the metrics that matter most to customers. Due to the resulting positive impact on customer confidence, Accuride recently earned new long-term agreements with several key customers representing more than 70 percent of its core wheel business. Accuride also secured new aluminum wheel business of up to $30 million annually that it will serve using its newly-expanded aluminum capacity. This leaves additional aluminum capacity open to enable Accuride to respond rapidly to growth in customer demand when the projected recovery in the North American commercial vehicle industry occurs in the second half of 2013.

Gunite’s casting and machining upgrades, meanwhile, are generating opportunities for the business to regain share. Gunite has been designated as a preferred aftermarket source by a key OEM and removed from new-business hold by all of its OEM customers, allowing fleets to specify Gunite products when ordering vehicles. Cast, machined and assembled in the USA, Gunite components are competitively priced to both domestic and off-shore alternatives, and are available at the industry’s shortest lead-times on popular models.

“The majority of our program to restore dependable operational performance across Accuride is now complete and already yielding gains in product quality, delivery, lead-times, pricing and competitiveness,” said Rick Dauch, Accuride President and CEO. “Thanks to the investments we have made in our core business, we are quickly regaining customers’ faith in our ability to support their needs while positioning ourselves for the projected market recovery to come.”

Accuride representatives will be at HDAW ’13 in Booth 813 (between the two main entrances) on Tuesday, January 22^nd, and Wednesday, January 23^rd, to discuss the unique advantages of partnering with Accuride Wheel End Solutions – the only single source for industry-leading steel and forged aluminum wheels and wheel-end components – and to showcase a number of key aftermarket products.

About Accuride Corporation

With headquarters in Evansville, Ind., USA, Accuride Corporation is a leading manufacturer and supplier of components to the North American commercial vehicle industry. The company’s products include commercial vehicle wheels, wheel-end components and assemblies, truck body and chassis parts, and other commercial vehicle components. Accuride recently began marketing products manufactured by the company’s Accuride^® Wheels business (steel and forged aluminum wheels) and Gunite^®business (brake drums, disc wheel hubs, spoke wheels, rotors, and slack adjusters) jointly under the Accuride Wheel End Solutions^™ brand to capitalize on the complementary nature of the two businesses’ product lines to enhance customer service, ordering process, manufacturing, engineering, and overall dependability. Other Accuride products are marketed under the Imperial^™ and Brillion^™ brand names. Accuride’s common stock trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol ACW. For more information, visit www.AccurideCorp.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

Statements contained in this news release that are not purely historical are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements regarding the Company’s expectations, hopes, beliefs and intentions on strategies regarding Accuride’s future results. It is important to note that the Company’s actual future results could differ materially from those projected in such forward-looking statements because of a number of factors, including but not limited to, market demand in the commercial vehicle industry, general economic, business and financing conditions, labor relations, governmental action, competitor pricing activity, expense volatility and other risks detailed from time to time in the Company’s Securities and Exchange Commission filings.