Automotive supply chain under the epidemic
Text/Zhao Yi
At the same time that Chen Yudong, president of Bosch China, was doing his annual media briefing, the association also released sales figures for April.
In fact, the numbers are worse than anyone could have predicted, at least more so than I expected.
Fortunately, Chen Yudong himself has always been a positive and optimistic person, and when he talked about the impact of the epidemic in self-deprecatingly, he said that the shanghai epidemic was closed, and there were fewer companies that blocked the door to ask for chips in March and April, and they also knew the situation that Bosch was facing, "all of them intend to spare me." ”
Bosch, represented by Chen Yudong, has been facing pressure from downstream vehicle companies since the first half of 2021, and they are eager to get more chips. This situation has been further aggravated by the spread of the epidemic in March this year.
However, even the double pressure of chips and the epidemic cannot hide bosch China's beautiful performance in the past year.
Bosch Global CEO Dr. Steven Hartung
As the world's largest supplier of components, Bosch's newly appointed global CEO Dr. Steven Hartung also communicated his 2021 report card today, with global sales of 78.7 billion euros, of which China accounted for 21.4%, reaching 16.9 billion euros (128.6 billion yuan), achieving a growth of 9.6%.
China is still the largest single market in the world, and this is the second time that Bosch China has achieved this "position" within the Bosch global system.
Achievements have not been easy to come by. Chen Yudong recalled that from the heavy snow in Texas (Samsung, NXP, Infineon) at the beginning of last year, to the Earthquake in Japan (Renesas, Toshiba, Sony), and then to the spread of the epidemic in Malaysia (NXP, Infineon, STMicroelectronics), successive black swan events blocked chip supply and pushed Bosch to the cusp.
In addition to the impact of the supply side, on the demand side, The outbreak of China, the world's largest new energy vehicle market in 2021, is also the reason for the sudden shortage of chips, with annual sales of new energy vehicles of 2.989 million units, an increase of 169.1% year-on-year, and the explosive growth has made chip companies and Bosch China unable to cope.
Over the past year, Bosch China has mobilized all its resources to deal with chip shortages. On the one hand, it spent 1 billion euros in Germany to invest in the construction of the Dresden factory; on the other hand, it is to maintain the supply chain at any cost and continue to "grab production capacity" among suppliers in Malaysia and other places.
Since the process technology of automotive vehicle specification chip is not the most cutting-edge, 24nm, 48nm, and even 90nm abound, so Chen Yudong even began to "lobby" upstream suppliers to develop in China.
Bosch is attracting more innovative talents, especially software talents
"The chip problem is expected to gradually improve in the second half of this year, and it will improve fundamentally in the first half of next year." Regarding the chip question, Chen Yudong gave the answer.
If the fourth black swan event is drawn on the timeline of guaranteed supply, there is no doubt that it is the Shanghai epidemic. The outbreak, which began in March, hit Bosch's production sites in Shanghai and Suzhou.
Of the 128.6 billion yuan in domestic sales in 2021, 75% belong to the automotive business, and the business attributes of auto parts companies with their toB have a multiplier effect on the output value in the downstream of the industrial chain, that is, in the business field of consumer-facing consumers.
In fact, this situation is confirmed by the data of the Association of Passenger Vehicles, and the retail sales of China's passenger car market in April were 1.042 million units, down 35.5% year-on-year, and the retail sales growth rate in April was at a record level in the month.
In terms of production, passenger car production in April was 969,000 units, down 41.1% year-on-year.
In April, the production of the five major car companies in Shanghai fell by 75% compared with March, the production of the joint venture main car companies in Changchun fell by 54%, and the overall decline in other regions was 38%.
The above shocking decline, the federation of passengers in the report in a sentence summed up, "the shanghai area parts system of the national radiation effect highlighted."
As a leader in the parts supply system, Bosch is well aware of its heavy responsibilities, and a month ago, when discussing the list of resumption of work and production in Shanghai, Bosch not only submitted a list of 40 of its own first-class suppliers, but also provided a list of hundreds of indirect suppliers.
AI-enabled energy conservation and emission reduction _ production energy management system
It was hoped that the supply chain would be pulled up in this way, but this figure proved to be far from enough. Chen Yudong gave the example of "Daily Auto Telecom", a four-tier supplier, responsible for the coating of parts and components of the enterprise can not resume work, Bosch can not come up with a parts, therefore can not deliver, such cases abound.
At present, the proportion of upstream companies guaranteeing Bosch is 50% to 60%, while Bosch's current output capacity is 30% to 50% at normal levels. This situation is slowly improving as more and more companies resume work and production, but there is no doubt that May will be the most difficult month.
During the closed-loop management period, employees at the Shanghai Huayu factory operated AGVs
Bosch's current factories in Shanghai, Suzhou and other places have been doing closed-loop management to ensure the smooth flow of logistics and the smooth supply of upstream enterprises at any cost.
As the impact of the epidemic continues to deepen, the annual growth rate of nearly 10% may be difficult to reproduce in 2022. After Bosch entered China, there have been years of "negative growth", but according to Chen Yudong, 2022 will eventually be a "slight increase".
Under multiple pressures, Bosch also has good news, first of all, software development, hydrogen energy, autonomous driving and other fields, Bosch through direct investment and equity participation, in China to draw a blueprint for the next 10 years, 20 years. A large number of innovative enterprises, including Wenyuan Zhixing, Black Sesame, Yo-running Technology, Andy-Shi Technology, etc., are all in this blueprint.
Bosch works with partners to promote the development of local hydrogen power
In addition, Bosch's newly appointed global CEO Dr. Steven Hatung, at the China Staff Meeting held on May 9, he publicly stated in his speech to the Chinese team that China will be Bosch's "Second Home", an unprecedented expression that is undoubtedly the greatest comfort for more than 50,000 Bosch employees struggling in China.