Parts and components are the cornerstones of the automotive industry. The "screws" are not strong and the entire "car body" may fall apart.
As the front end of the entire industry chain, the excellence of component manufacturers is directly related to the development level of a country's auto industry. With the increase in vehicle production, the increase in car ownership, the ever-growing Chinese overseas market for parts and components, and the adjustment of relevant national policies have brought favorable conditions for the rapid development of parts and components in China, as well as challenges.
At present, the overall situation of China's parts and components companies - scattered industrial layout, low market concentration, small economic scale, overall poor efficiency. As the profit of the entire vehicle industry continues to fall, foreign investment in China’s auto parts has increased, and tariffs on imported parts have continued to decrease. China's spare parts industry is facing development from production to production, from operations to markets, and from sales forms to services. Structure, from the quality of employees to brand awareness, from the market reputation to business philosophy and a series of problems of the severe test.
How to localize parts?
When it comes to the issue of localization of China's auto parts industry, we must mention the sole proprietorship enterprises and foreign joint ventures in China. They have become an important part of China's auto parts industry and represent advanced technology. Foreign-invested parts and components companies have mastered the core technologies of key parts and components and have given priority to supporting OEMs. They enjoy some preferential policies granted by the state and have stronger competitiveness than other manufacturers.
After joining the WTO, China will gradually fulfill its commitment to reduce the import tariffs on auto parts from 35% to 10%. The discrepancy in tariffs on auto parts and vehicle imports (30%) has led to the prevalence of CKD, assembly of all parts and assembly of SKD (half parts) in recent years, and has affected the normal development of the auto parts industry. To this end, the country introduced "Administrative Measures for the Import of Auto Parts that Constitute the Characteristics of the Vehicle" in the last year. The implementation of the Measures has, to some extent, curbed the prevalence of domestic assembly production, ensured the healthy development of domestic parts and components companies, and increased the localization rate of auto parts.
As the joint venture increases the localization rate in China, foreign investment in China’s auto parts and components is also undergoing three changes: from equity participation to controlling, from joint ventures to sole proprietorship, and from taking market to monopoly markets. These enterprises are typical of Japanese and Korean companies. They usually adopt the practice of moving their parts and components companies to China.
For example, Beijing Hyundai, according to the reporter, there are more than 20 parts and components companies around Beijing Hyundai, of which there are two Hyundai sole-owned plants, namely Hyundai Mobis Automotive Parts Co., Ltd. and Hyundai Haisk Steel Co., Ltd., the former. Responsible for the production of key components such as gearboxes, while the latter mainly supplies vehicle steel plates to Beijing Hyundai. In addition, there are a number of Korean-owned parts joint ventures producing key auto parts such as bodywork, chassis, and shock absorbers. In contrast, local parts and components factories around Beijing mainly provide them with low-value-added products, and there is no climate in terms of matching. This means that once the ROK's supporting system is left, the joint venture company will not be able to do anything. It can be said that Beijing Modern is a CKD assembly plant in terms of sense. It is only that the ROK built the factory in China, omitting a large part of the cost of imported logistics.
If localization policies do not really cultivate the technological development capabilities of China's spare parts, on the contrary, under the drive of their own interests, each group has established a small and complete parts system with poor versatility and no market competitiveness. Localization and localization. This approach also brings unfavorable factors to the development of China's auto industry and parts and components. How can we say that we can cooperate in research, development, digestion, and mastering its core technologies?
Under the guidance of localization policies, China's car manufacturers will mainly focus on localization, and even some companies will replace domestic independent research and development with localization. Although localization has an important role in promoting employment and product replacement, but from the perspective of long-term interests, products that truly have independent R&D significance are the foundation for the healthy development of China's auto industry.
Business development challenges
The reporter learned from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers that, in 2005, the country produced and sold 5.707 million cars and 575.82 million cars, an increase of 12.55% and 13.54% year-on-year respectively. However, under the premise of increasing production, enterprises did not increase their income, and profitability was generally low. According to statistics, the total profit of the auto industry in the first 10 months was 40.385 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 36.62%. The lower profit of the auto industry will inevitably lead to a reduction in the profit of parts and components. It is understood that in the first 7 months of last year, the profit rate of the parts and components companies was 5.73%. The decline in profits will inevitably lead to increased competition in the industry.
Under the background of the increasingly globalized economy, the global procurement of spare parts has become the best choice due to fierce market competition and product cost pressures. Under the influence of this trend, the mutually closed cooperation between the parts companies and the vehicle companies has been broken. More and more parts and components companies use production transfer and cross-border mergers and acquisitions to be independent of the vehicle companies. It already exists in China. The most typical example is Wanxiang Group.
However, most auto parts companies in China are mainly dependent on the local market. How big is the local market and how large is the development space of the company? Many companies are in an embarrassing state of “fail to eat, hungry, and not growingâ€. The reorganization and integration of parts and components companies lacks mechanisms and motivation, and the trend of group development is far less than that of the entire vehicle industry.
From the perspective of product scale, the developed countries produce at least a few millions of products, but in China, there are usually only a few hundred thousand or tens of thousands of pieces. The scale does not increase and the cost remains high. Domestic parts and components companies, even the earliest SAIC Group in China, are only a few hundred thousand (pieces) of production. Most parts and components companies do not have economies of scale. According to reports, China has not yet reached a critical business scale for a parts and components company. Even Wanxiang Group, the largest parts and components company in China, is the same. Most domestic companies generally have the problem of high cost and poor efficiency, and they basically do not have international competitiveness.
From a product point of view, although China's auto parts exports have begun to show rapid growth in recent years. But fundamentally, there is still a lack of products with high technological content. In particular, electronic automotive parts and components rely more on imports. This part of the product is dominated by automotive electronic control systems that have a higher value in automotive electronics, such as automotive engine fuel injection systems and brake control systems. Compared with the mature technologies, rich experience and strong R&D capabilities of foreign companies in the field of automotive electronic control, China’s automotive electronics are still quite weak. So far, there is no domestic electronics company involved in this field, the domestic market has been dominated by powerful automotive electronics multinational companies abroad.
In terms of design, most of our country is variable-parameter design, a few are adaptive design, and there are few developmental designs. As the OEMs are increasingly assigning development and design tasks to component suppliers, the development level will become a bottleneck for the development of China's parts industry. In this part of the product, mechanical products such as forging, punching, and pressing are dominant, and products with high real technical content are still controlled by foreign joint ventures and wholly-owned companies.
From the perspective of layout, there are still a few small enterprises in China with small scale, low technological content, and poor product quality. These enterprises are also distributed throughout the country. From the perspective of the geographical location of the company?s group headquarters, the central and eastern enterprises are the mainstay and the western enterprises are supplemented. In order of quantity, enterprises are concentrated in the Yangtze River Delta, Central Bohai Sea, Northeast China, Pearl River Delta and other regions. The enterprises are too dispersed, which directly leads to the imbalance of supply and demand in the auto parts market and the unreasonable industrial layout. This is also a fatal problem in the development of auto parts industry.
China's parts and components companies should focus on technology, service, and cost, give full play to their own advantages, and strive to form a large-scale and professional group. Big Group should develop high-tech and electronic technology component product research and development, and actively develop cooperation with internationally-advanced parts and components companies in production and support; small enterprises should form industrial order, strictly control quality, and increase The contact of the factory gradually formed a system.