The overall slump in the auto industry has caused the parts and components industry to tremble. So far, there are dozens of well-known parts and components companies that have gone bankrupt or filed for bankruptcy protection abroad. According to ATKearney, a US automotive consulting company, about 35% of US auto parts companies will go bankrupt in 2009, and more than half of the parts manufacturers will file for bankruptcy protection. The more pessimistic estimate is that more than 70% of auto parts suppliers will be liquidated.

The analysis of the characteristics of foreign closure companies shows that these crisis-affected international parts and components companies can be classified into three categories: First, group companies with large scale and “diversified” operations; second, there is no core technology or their technology is insufficient to maintain the market. Competitive companies; Third, “professional” companies that only produce one or more components for one or more OEMs.

The first group of companies mainly refers to a group of parts giants represented by Delphi and Schaeffler. Taking Delphi as an example, its status in the parts and components industry is no less than that of General Motors in the entire vehicle industry. However, as early as in October 2005, it filed for bankruptcy protection. In 2009, it once again fell into the predicament of insolvency. The author believes that Delphi is unable to extricate itself from the crisis. The main reason is that the scale is too large and “diversified” operations are conducted at the same time. Delphi has 150 production and R&D facilities in 34 countries around the world. But companies are too big, and operating costs and management costs are relatively high. If cost control cannot be effectively implemented, the advantages of the enterprise will disappear.

The second type of enterprises mainly refers to suppliers of common parts and stamping parts. For example, on January 30, 2009, Contech LLC, a US supplier of automotive lightweight die castings, filed for bankruptcy protection (only for companies in the United States); on March 5, 2009, Swedish automotive plastic parts manufacturer Plastal filed a Swedish local The court filed for bankruptcy, and so on. These companies are in crisis, mainly because the industry has low technical requirements. At the same time, the company lacks the key core technologies that can defeat the enemy, and then falls first under the impact of the crisis.

In the third category of "professional" parts and components companies, Australia's DSI is the most typical. As the world's second-largest supplier of automatic transmissions, the company is small in size and has core technologies in hand. It is because the company's products have almost all supplied South Korea's Ssangyong Motor, which has caused it to fail to escape bankruptcy. It was eventually acquired by Geely with a total investment of 314.7 million Hong Kong dollars. The biggest drawback of such enterprises is that customers are too single. Once customers have problems, they will directly affect the company's normal operations.

When lean dead camels took the lead in the international parts and components industry than Mada, the domestic companies constantly heard the remarks that China's spare parts companies must “scrape overseas” and “pull the sea to the sea”. Then, Chinese parts and components companies really have such strength. ?

A Delphi caught in the bankruptcy crisis has 10 R&D and production bases in China. Among them, 5 companies were selected as the top 100 Chinese parts and components companies in 2007 and their total operating revenue was nearly 9 billion yuan. Their EFI and automotive electronics technologies are not suitable in the country. The position of incitement; Closed the British subsidiary Visteon Corporation, its subsidiary in China Yanfeng Visteon Automotive Trim Systems Co., Ltd. in 2007 the main business income of 13.65 billion yuan, is the leading domestic automotive interiors industry; the world's No. The two transmission manufacturers DSI have been bankrupt and successfully acquired by Geely, but the domestic transmission companies mostly stay in the manual stage, and the automatic transmission technology still needs to be broken.

Needless to say, domestic parts and components companies have a large gap with international parts giants, whether they are technology or corporate strength. Domestic enterprises should clearly understand that the reason why the financial crisis has greatly impacted the international component giants and the relative safety of domestic companies is not because of their strong technology and market strength, but because of the special nature of the Chinese auto industry to the parts and components industry. Very good shelter. What the parts and components companies need to do now is not to blindly go out, but to understand the reality and learn from the international bankruptcy trend.

Reflections on the Development Path of Domestic Enterprises

In view of foreign experience, domestic large-scale component companies must first be cautious in their strategic choice for diversification. The best domestic practice in this area is Zhejiang Wanxiang. Wanxiang Group started with universal joints and began to diversify its business after a firm market position. However, it only targeted the main products to the knuckles and brake systems, and it will have other products with certain technological relevance but no technical advantages. Discard or list as non-key products. Today, Wanxiang Group's steering knuckles and brakes have been marketed globally, with a domestic market share of over 60% and an international market share of around 10%.

On the contrary, the development path of some domestic parts and components companies is not very appropriate. A company that relied on automotive electronics started to expand its product lines to other parts when electronic technology is not advanced and its industry status has not yet been established. Production such as die castings, interior trims, etc. is not relevant to automotive electronics. The product's development direction will be very unfavorable to the company.

Secondly, parts and components companies should make great efforts in core technologies and use core technologies to arm themselves as early as possible. The technical problem of parts and components companies is a constant topic. The competitive parts and components companies in China are mainly concentrated in labor and resource-intensive industries. There are not many companies that really rely on technology to establish businesses. If such companies really do Going abroad to face international competition can only be suppressed at the lowest level of the industry, rely on the cost advantage given by low wages and cheap resources to provide customers with products with no added value, or be directly eliminated.

Finally, it is also a problem that DSI reflects: The irreplaceable advantages of the host supporting system do enable companies to benefit greatly in a low-competitive environment, but it is also very dangerous to rely solely on the supporting market and even a supporting market. This is an easily overlooked but very important point.