Increased competition in the domestic automotive bearing market

Recently, the bearing market in China is not calm.

The series of acquisitions made by multinational bearing companies to China's backbone bearing manufacturers and mergers and acquisitions among domestic companies have complicated the structure and competitive landscape of the domestic automotive bearing market. At the same time, the investment of multinational bearing companies in China is accelerating and the new joint venture companies are one by one.

Recently, SKF, the world's largest bearing manufacturer, held its first global board meeting in China. During the SKF global board meeting, two new joint ventures were started one after another. The number of SKF companies investing in China increased from six to eight.

China is the fourth largest bearing market in the world, and is also a major bearing producer. Eight of the world's multinational bearing companies have established joint ventures or wholly-owned plants in China. The internationalization of domestic competition has become the main feature of China's bearing market competition. In the course of joint ventures and mergers and acquisitions, China's bearing industry is being integrated into the world's bearing industry chain step by step. What occupy the position in this industry chain is decisive for technical and capital strength. Judging from the current situation, the role of technological strength in market segmentation is even more obvious.

SKF President and CEO Johnston believes that the biggest change in China's auto market is "the customer's demand for us has been synchronized with the world." This change has provided opportunities for SKF and other multinational bearing companies to quickly enter the Chinese market.

In recent years, the rapid development of China's auto industry, the speed of the introduction of new models in the car industry is faster each year, many of the world's latest models landed in the Chinese market, the car industry's requirements for the domestic parts industry has also increased to the product and research and development to " Synchronize with the world." However, China's auto parts industry lags behind the development of the vehicle and cannot meet the needs of car manufacturers. A huge market space is quickly occupied by multinational bearing companies with advanced technology and products.

Taking passenger cars' hub bearings as an example, in 2005 China's production of cars was about 2.8 million, and more than 120 new cars were listed that year. Among them, mid-to-high-class cars are listed together. Most of the required first and second-generation passenger car wheel bearings are provided by foreign joint ventures or wholly-owned enterprises. SKF's factories in China are not only for Shanghai Volkswagen, FAW-Volkswagen, Dongfeng Shenlong, Shanghai GM, Changan Ford, etc., but also for our own brand cars (Brilliance, Chery, Chang'an, etc.). Under such circumstances, multinational companies with advanced technology and products can easily enter the domestic market and occupy the supporting market for mid- to high-end cars.

The gradual realization of unitization and modularization is the development trend of automotive bearing products. This year, SKF's new factory in Jiading, Shanghai is about to open, and a production line that can produce third-generation wheel hub bearing units has been installed. According to Zhu Yingjian, general manager of SKF Automotive Bearing Co., Ltd., apart from the production of third-generation wheel hub bearing units, any new SKF product may be produced at the new plant. The new factory not only pays attention to the improvement of production capacity, but also increases the application of new technologies and new products in the Chinese market.

With strong technical strength, SKF has begun to enter the commercial vehicle market in China.

In the face of the overbearing trend of multinational bearing manufacturers, China's self-owned brand bearing manufacturers are not willing to retreat from the low-end market, and are no longer solely seeking to increase their production capacity. Instead, they are stepping up their efforts in technological innovation, technological progress, and changing the mode of economic growth in the industry. .

Xiangyang Automobile Bearing Group (a domestic backbone bearing manufacturer) car bearing factory began mass production this year, and the number of orders recently reached as high as 100,000 sets. It is equipped with Beverly, Jetta, Beijing Hyundai, Chery, Xiali, Bluebird and many others. The technical strength of the models to produce bearings, car bearings is becoming a new economic growth point. Wanxiang Group has formed a large-volume production capacity of the third-generation wheel hub unit, and has achieved the support for a number of international and domestic cars and major domestic mini-vehicle manufacturers. Luoxi Group's car wheel bearing project and LYC large-scale heavy-load bearing technological transformation project have become key investment projects in Luoyang this year.

Bearing manufacturers in transnational countries are taking over the middle and high-end market in China, and Chinese companies are facing great pressure while facing opportunities.

In order to reduce costs, cross-bearing bearing manufacturers in China continue to expand the scale of production, while training a group of local suppliers, and transfer some of the technology. According to reports, at present, SKF's products manufactured in China have all been localized, and the upcoming SKF Shanghai Jiading new plant will soon achieve 100% localization. Not only that, SKF also exports products purchased from local Chinese companies abroad.

According to the analysis of relevant experts, for China's auto bearing manufacturing enterprises, independent innovation should be more encouraged to follow the path of introduction, absorption, digestion, and innovation, because the development of technology is directly proportional to the accumulation of experience, and learning abroad through joint ventures. Advanced technology will help China's bearing industry become stronger and stronger.

The competition in China's auto bearing market is far from over. The joint ventures and wholly-owned enterprises that have an advantage in China's mid-to-high-end car market have already paid attention to the domestic commercial vehicle market; and China's own brand auto bearing production enterprises are also in a very difficult situation and are going one step further. Enter the car bearing market. It can be foreseen that the competition in the Chinese bearing market will be more intense and the situation will be more complicated.

However, looking at the game of the Chinese bearing market in cold eyes, there are two outcomes: First, the bearing market in China will grow bigger and bigger, and its status and influence in the international market will gradually increase; second, the technology of Chinese domestic companies. Strength will have a new leap in competition.