Bosch boosts efforts in car market
By Yu Qiao (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-04-23 08:50

Robert Bosch GmbH, one of the world's leading automotive component producers, announced on Thursday that it plans to invest a further US$600 million from 2005 to 2007 in China, the world's fastest-growing vehicle market.

"We feel this demonstrates our confidence in and further commitment to this market," said Rudolf Colm, a member of Bosch's management board.

The German group will use the new investment to expand its four existing facilities in China, including an automotive diesel systems plant, a chassis development centre in East China's Jiangsu Province, and two industrial-use mobile hydraulics plants in the province and Beijing, according to Peter Pang, president of Bosch (China) Investment Co Ltd.

Bosch is to open a technology centre for auto anti-lock braking and electronic stability program systems today in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province. The technology centre is not part of the group's new investment in China.

The group now runs 26 wholly-owned subsidiaries and joint ventures with partners in China with a total investment of more than US$600 million.

Bosch also aims to double its procurement in China to at least US$1.2 billion annually by 2007 from that in 2004 to supply its operations in China and the Asia Pacific region as well as the rest of the world, Pang said.

He told China Daily the group expects annual growth of at least 15 per cent in sales revenues in China in the years to 2007.

Its sales revenues in China rose by 12 per cent to 14 billion yuan (US$1.7 billion) last year from 2003.

To strengthen its regional businesses, Bosch has applied to the Chinese Government to build its regional headquarters for the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan in Shanghai, Pang said.

Bosch will speed up the localization of its technologies in China as localization has been one of the "top priorities" of the auto industry in the nation, he said.

"Bosch plans to localize a whole range of products in 2005 in order to fully support the sustainable development of China's auto industry," he said.

Delphi, another of the world's automotive component giants, has invested more than US$500 million in China so far.

The US-based firm reported some US$650 million in consolidated sales in China last year.

All of the world's major automakers have formed joint ventures with partners in China to produce their vehicles.

Sales of domestically-made automobiles reached 5.07 million units last year, an increase of 15 per cent from 2003.

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