Ｗｏｒｒｉｅｓ ａｂｏｕｔ Ｃａｒｓ

China has already become the country in which the most vehicles are sold in one year; however, the entire competitive power of the Chinese auto industry still falls behind the developed countries.

The Research and Development Center of the Chinese State Council (Cabinet) issued the Automobile Blue Book – Report about the Development of Chinese Automobile Industry 2009 (hereafter the Automobile Report 2009) on July 7. A group of data in this report showed that the Chinese domestic automakers should accelerate the strategic restructurings of auto industry and the development of parts and components and the other supporting industries, which are essential in improving the competitive power of the Chinese auto industry.

Though there is no doubt that China will see more than 10 million vehicles be sold by the end of this year, Fu Yuwu, Secretary-general of the Society of Automobile Engineers of China (SAE) doesnt hold a blind optimistic viewpoint. In his opinion, the Chinese auto industry is still far behind the developed countries in innovation, domestic brand power and positions in the global value chain.

According to the Automobile Report 2009, if the international competitive power of the developed countries auto industries is set at 100 points, the Chinese auto industrys competitive power was only 53.83 points, up 10.9% from the year of 2006. Lets compare China with Germany whose auto industry is one of the most developed in the world. In 2007, the German auto industrys competitive power was 81.16 points while the one of China was 51.10, accounting for 63% of the German.

The Automobile Report 2009 attributed this to the factor that the government-oriented auto industrys development pattern which has been existing for a long time is not gone. The management system is still haunted by the defects like overlapping management, local protectionism and market protectionism. Meanwhile, quite a little effect can be seen in encouraging the self innovation, in leading the market-oriented industrial integration and in improving the industrial concentration. Further progress is needed.

The impeded development of auto component industry is generally acknowledged by the whole industry. With spreading and deepening of the financial crisis, the Chinese domestic auto component enterprises have to face the challenges of limitation in exports, expansion of foreign-funded enterprises, the scattered industrial distribution and unreasonable product structure. The existing situation for them is becoming worse and worse.

In order to objectively understand and analyze the status quo of the product development abilities of the Chinese auto component enterprises, the SAE conducted a survey on five assembly manufacturing enterprises of engine, transmission, axles, braking system and steering system at the beginning of this year.

The result of the survey is worrying: presently the Chinese auto component industry can only satisfy the basic demand of low- and medium-end auto models. The research and development and production in the parts and components do not follow the future technological development trend, especially the electronic components related with energy-saving, environmental protection and peoples safety.

The status quo of the Chinese auto component industry is that the domestic enterprises can not compete with the foreign-funded companies in engine, transmission and some other key fields. In the fields of auto lights and glasses, the Chinese enterprises take more market share, but they have to face more and more furious competition from the foreign companies. Under the influence of financial crisis, the Chinese domestic enterprises are confronted with more serious challenges..