Foreign investment giant giant enclosure is now domestic auto parts crevice survival

When the domestic parts and components industry sits on the sidelines, foreign capital is quietly pushing on one side. An important part of the "2003 annual auto parts industry conference" is to discuss the impact of foreign-funded parts and components companies on domestic companies in the past year. At the same time, the embryonic form of the Delphi China Technology Center has emerged.

Multinational parts companies attack high ground

As the world’s largest component manufacturer, the Delphi China Technology Center is initially located in Waigaoqiao Free Trade Zone, Pudong New Area, Shanghai. The total investment of Phase III project is expected to be US$50 million. The first phase will be put into operation in June 2005.

"This technical center will not only serve the Chinese market, but will also provide Delphi's global companies and customers with technology and R&D support," said Chen Jinya, chairman of Delphi Automotive Systems (China) Investment Co., Ltd.

According to industry analysts, this technology center will contain two major contents: application technology and basic R&D, while the former is of strategic importance to the improvement of Delphi's domestic business profitability.

Component manufacturers face downward pressure from 8% to 10% of the downstream strong OEMs every year. Even companies such as Delphi and Bosch are no exceptions. For this reason, many overseas parts and components companies have participated in the design of the vehicle through research and development or even early to obtain high profits. Delphi’s technical center is now entering China and it's tempting to think of it.

Roland Berger Consulting has done such a survey: Nearly 70% of domestic parts suppliers are relatively or obviously lacking in international competitiveness, especially some key modules or systems with high technology. 30% of component suppliers have considerable international competitiveness, but most of them are labor-intensive and raw-material-intensive components such as batteries, wheels, and bumpers.

In this regard, Shi Xuezhong, the deputy general manager of Fuao Automotive Components Co., Ltd., described it as “the most headache and most disturbing”. When foreign investment in the strategic high ground, the domestic companies are also subject to intellectual property rights problems, "the vast majority of them only on the basis of the introduction of products to carry out some of the functional, structural, as well as the size of the conversion only."

German auto parts brewing scale transfer

While building a technology center in Delphi, the European auto parts industry has also accelerated the pace of investment. According to news from the Zhejiang Provincial Government, the German Automobile Parts Association is currently negotiating with the locals and is preparing to transfer the German parts production base to Xiaoshan and Taizhou in Zhejiang. As early as October 2003, Dr. Wolfgang, deputy head of the delegation of German auto parts and components at the then “Conflict”, expressed the heart of the Chinese market: “China’s huge auto market capacity is not only a complete vehicle. The demand for auto parts and components is also very strong in the market. China also has a cheap labor force. After joining the World Trade Organization, foreign companies will continue to expand their investment in China."

According to statistics, the operating income of German component suppliers accounts for about 1/4 of the entire German automotive industry. Some analysts believe that the purpose of the German Auto Parts Association's transfer of production bases is on the one hand because of the low cost of domestic labor, but more importantly, the growing domestic auto market. There are optimistic estimates that the annual demand for domestic cars in the Chinese auto industry will reach 6 million by 2010.

Before this, Robert Bosch, the leader of the German auto parts industry, and Wuxi Weifu Co., Ltd. signed an investment agreement amounting to 600 million euros, which is equivalent to Bosch's investment in China over the years. It will build a production base with 560,000 sets of electronically controlled VE pump production lines, 700,000 sets of high pressure common rails, and electronically controlled fuel injector production lines with internationally advanced standards.

Domestic auto parts companies survive

At present, the domestic auto parts industry has faced a dilemma: not only is it subject to high-end technology, but also in the low-end manufacturing industry, as more and more foreign auto giants land in China, they also face a large number of foreign auto parts companies flocking to compete. pressure.

“We now propose that vehicle parts purchased by domestic vehicle companies should not be less than 40%,” said Chen Bingyan, head of the China Automotive Components Strategy Research Group. The main research content of this topic starting from April 2003 is how to deal with the increasingly strong foreign-funded parts and components enterprises.

Shen Ningwu, deputy secretary-general of the China Automobile Association, summarized the plight of domestic parts and components companies in three aspects:

Firstly, the number of imported spare parts soared. In the first three quarters of 2003, the total amount of parts and components imports reached US$5.043 billion, an increase of 111% over the same period last year; Second, the phenomenon of foreign-owned foreign ownership increased; Third, the procurement of auto parts to China thundered and rained heavily. small.

When the entire vehicle still has a 50% policy bottom line, parts and components are completely open, and the strength of domestic parts and components companies is not optimistic.

According to statistics, the total sales of the domestic auto parts industry in 2002 was 75 billion yuan. Among them, several multinational companies entering the Chinese parts industry include Delphi of the United States, Denso of Japan, Bosch of Germany and other three world-class component giants, and their market share in China accounts for 14%.

"At present, it is only the beginning." Chen Bingyan is a reminder. In his subject, there are three levels: government, industry (mainly associations), and companies. In addition to the government’s construction of this topic, it is still more necessary to remind domestic enterprises to upgrade themselves as soon as possible.