Industry bellwether: T&BB discusses results and outlook for 2025 with Maxion’s CCO Giorgio Mariani
By Bradley Osborne – 2nd September 2025
In Truck & Bus Builder’s “Global Truck Report 2007”, published just before the financial crisis and “great recession” of 2008, we claimed that “across the developed markets, the demand for trucks can often be seen as a leading indicator to inflexions in the overall economic cycle.” Whether or not the truck industry can really be taken as a bellwether of the global economy, the truck wheel, a commodity that exhibits inelastic demand – no commercial vehicle can run without wheels – is undoubtedly a reliable indicator of market trends within the industry. “Usually, when we see shifts – positive or negative – on the truck side, they serve as an early indicator of what’s to come in the market,” said Giorgio Mariani, chief commercial officer at Maxion Wheels and vice president of global purchasing at parent company Iochpe-Maxion. “A good example is when, immediately post-COVID, it was the truck segment which began the industry recovery.”
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