Wheels India has commenced production at its new manufacturing facility set up near the city and was seeing strong demand for forged aluminium wheels overseas markets, a top company official has said. According to Wheels India chairman S Ram, the city-based manufacturer of steel wheels for automobiles, expects some recovery during the second half of the year."The increasing adoption of aluminium wheels on passenger vehicles will limit the growth of steel passenger car wheels. We have started production of cast aluminium wheels at our new plant in Thervoy Kandigai, near Chennai and started export of these wheels to the US market", he said while addressing the company's 62nd AGM through the virtual platform."Also, we are seeing a strong demand for forged aluminium wheels in export markets," he added.The chairman said the company expects the agriculture tractor market to continue the growth momentum this year."We see an opportunity for Wheels India to grow in its export of tractor wheels this year", he said.Stating that the air suspension business was badly affected last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he said the bus segment's recovery would depend to a great extent on how effectively the third wave of the pandemic was managed in the country.Wheels India has become a major supplier in the global wind energy business and one of the significant developments in FY21 was that the company was able to increase its exports as a percentage of its sales by over 25 per cent."The growth in the global economy and opportunities in front of the company is likely to ensure that this positive trend will continue. While our export business will grow, the domestic business should recover in the second half of the year," he said.