What Meritor makes

Meritor is one of the world's largest independent manufacturers of commercial-vehicle axles and brakes, with a product line that covers most of what sits between an engine and the road on a heavy truck. Its axle portfolio runs from front-drive and non-drive axles through single, tandem, and tridem rear axles for gross axle weights of roughly 3 to 18 tons, sold across North and South America, Europe, and Asia Pacific. On the braking side, the company describes itself as a global leader in size and capability for the commercial-vehicle industry, supplying air disc brakes, drum brakes, and actuators for trucks, trailers, buses, and coaches.

Around those two cores sits a full drivetrain catalog: carriers fabricated in-house for gross combination weights up to 100 tons, drivelines linking transmissions and drive axles, gearboxes and power take-offs for severe-duty all-wheel-drive work, suspensions, and the Meritor Tire Inflation System. Meritor is also a global leader in precision-forged gears, which it says go into a majority of the Class 5-8 commercial vehicles built in North America. A large aftermarket business rounds out the range, positioned as North America's leading source of commercial-vehicle replacement parts under the Meritor, Euclid, Mascot, and Meritor WABCO brands. Since 2022 the company has folded its electric-drivetrain and ePowertrain work into its parent's New Power organization.

Ownership and history

Meritor's lineage runs more than a century. The company traces its heritage to 1909 through the Rockwell automotive business (the old Timken-Detroit Axle line), and it marked its centenary in 2009. The modern corporate entity dates to 1997, when Rockwell's automotive unit was renamed Meritor Automotive and spun off as an independent company on October 1 of that year. In 2000 Meritor merged with Arvin Industries to form ArvinMeritor, combining heavy-vehicle strength with a light-vehicle business; the company simplified its name back to Meritor, Inc. in 2011 and traded on the NYSE under the ticker MTOR.

The most important recent change is ownership. On August 3, 2022, Cummins Inc. (NYSE: CMI) completed its roughly $3.7 billion acquisition of Meritor, and the MTOR ticker was delisted. Meritor now operates as Cummins Drivetrain and Braking Systems, a business unit within Cummins' Components segment, and continues to sell Meritor-branded axles, brakes, and aftermarket parts. The business remains headquartered at 2135 West Maple Road in Troy, Michigan. Its largest North American manufacturing operation is in western North Carolina, near Fletcher and Forest City, where a second Henderson County expansion, a $17 million investment adding about 40 jobs, was announced in September 2022. The company also runs manufacturing and distribution in Mexico, including a plant at Ciénega de Flores and a new parts distribution center in Monterrey. Day-to-day, the unit is led by Ken Hogan, Vice President and General Manager of Cummins Drivetrain and Braking Systems.

Scale and financial footing

Before the acquisition, Meritor reported total sales of $3.83 billion for the fiscal year ended October 3, 2021, and carried a workforce of roughly 10,000 people across 19 countries serving customers in more than 70 countries. Apollo carries about $4.3 billion in annual revenue for the last standalone period. Because Meritor is now a segment inside Cummins rather than a separately reporting public company, no standalone Meritor income statement or balance sheet is published; the figures here are its last independent results, cited as history rather than current performance.

What can be said about financial footing today is structural: Meritor is backed by Cummins Inc., a global, investment-grade power-and-technology company listed on the NYSE. For a buyer weighing supplier continuity, that backing matters more than any single Meritor-only metric would, and it is the reason this profile reports stability through tenure, trade activity, quality systems, and parent backing rather than through a standalone financial resilience grade.

Certifications and quality

As a Tier-1 supplier of safety-critical axle and brake systems to commercial-vehicle OEMs, Meritor operates to the automotive sector's standard quality framework. Its Supplier Quality System Requirements and the Cummins supplier handbooks that now govern the business are issued explicitly for ISO 9001:2015 and IATF 16949:2016, the quality-management standard required of automotive production suppliers. Individual Meritor plants carry site-level IATF 16949 certificates to meet OEM sourcing and PPAP requirements. This profile reports those as sector-standard practice; it does not assert a single dated corporate certificate.

Known customers

Meritor is a Tier-1 supplier whose individual truck-OEM program names are largely confidential, so its customer base is reported here through documented program and segment evidence rather than a roster.

Sourcing evidence

Meritor's US import record is one of the largest on file for any commercial-vehicle supplier: 43,459 sea shipments since 2015, with the most recent landing on September 25, 2026, and a steady flow of roughly 3,300 to 3,900 shipments in every calendar month. That is the inbound signature of a manufacturer running high-volume production lines, not a distributor. The bill-of-lading mix is dominated by brake friction material and axle and casting inputs, exactly what an axle-and-brake plant consumes. The most active foreign suppliers:

By HS chapter, brake friction linings (6813) are by far the single largest line, followed by brake parts (8708.30) and drive-axles and axle housings (8708.50). The origin base is genuinely diversified across continents: India (9,977 shipments) and Brazil (9,824) lead, followed by Turkey (3,792), China (3,222), Germany (2,360), the United Kingdom (2,305), and Italy (1,908). By region the split is roughly Asia 49.7 percent, Europe 24.9 percent, and South America 22.8 percent, a spread that gives Meritor multiple lanes for the same input category and some insulation from any single-country tariff or logistics shock.

Coverage caveats: these are US ocean-freight records only. Air, truck, and rail movements do not appear, and the main Meritor entity also imports under hundreds of consignee-name and address variants tied to freight forwarders, so counts consolidate related flows. Product categories come from declared manifest codes, which are noisy. Absence of a record is not evidence of absence.

Frequently asked questions

What does Meritor make?

Meritor manufactures commercial-vehicle axles and brakes, along with carriers, drivelines, gearboxes and power take-offs, precision-forged gears, suspensions, tire inflation systems, and a large line of aftermarket parts. It supplies trucks, trailers, buses and coaches, off-highway and defense vehicles, and serves both OEM and aftermarket customers.

Who owns Meritor?

Meritor has been owned by Cummins Inc. (NYSE: CMI) since August 3, 2022, when Cummins completed its roughly $3.7 billion acquisition. Meritor now operates as Cummins Drivetrain and Braking Systems, a business unit within Cummins' Components segment, and its former MTOR stock ticker was delisted. Meritor-branded products continue to be sold.

What was Meritor's revenue?

Meritor reported total sales of $3.83 billion for the fiscal year ended October 3, 2021, its last full year as a standalone public company, with roughly $4.3 billion in annual revenue cited for its final independent period. Since the 2022 acquisition it is a segment inside Cummins and does not report standalone financials.

Where is Meritor headquartered?

Meritor is headquartered at 2135 West Maple Road, Troy, Michigan 48084. Its largest North American manufacturing operation is in western North Carolina near Fletcher and Forest City, and it also runs manufacturing and distribution in Mexico.

Who are Meritor's customers?

Meritor is a Tier-1 supplier to commercial-vehicle OEMs, and most program names are confidential. Documented evidence includes a Mack Defense axle program in the customs record and the company's own statements that its precision-forged gears are in a majority of North American Class 5-8 vehicles and that it is a leading transit-bus and motorcoach axle supplier.

How large is Meritor?

At the time of the Cummins acquisition Meritor employed roughly 10,000 people across 19 countries and served customers in more than 70 countries. It is one of the world's largest independent manufacturers of commercial-vehicle axles and a global leader in commercial-vehicle braking.

Last verified September 28, 2026. Is this your company? Request a correction.