On February 15th, Automechanika Shanghai opened in Shenzhen. This is the first time that Automechanika Shanghai has moved to Shenzhen, and the popularity of the exhibition has also excited the organizers and exhibitors. According to official sources, as of 5 p.m. on February 14, the number of pre-registered visitors to this exhibition has reached ninety percent of the peak of 2019.
The three-year epidemic has made the vast majority of auto parts companies unable to participate in exhibitions and unable to go abroad, which is the main way for enterprises to obtain orders in the past. "It's like holding it under the water for a long time, and now I can finally come up and breathe." At the exhibition site, Hugo Cross-border heard exhibitors say this more than once.
Exhibitors are busy introducing products to customers, adding WeChat to each other, merchants exchange between booths to negotiate business, and familiar scenes from the past are reappearing. Behind the excitement, Chinese auto parts people who have experienced the epidemic for three years are regrouping and ready to go.
1. The re-agglomeration of old and new forces
As the first exhibition of the year, this exhibition opened the curtain of the "retaliatory recovery" of the auto parts industry.
It is reported that the exhibition area of 220,000 square meters, not only gathered more than 3,300 auto parts industry brands from 19 countries and regions around the world to participate in the exhibition, Yangtze River Delta, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Pearl River Delta, Chengdu-Chongqing and other important domestic parts industry cluster enterprises also bring products and technologies that closely follow the development trend of the industry. The enthusiastic participation of domestic exhibitors also fully shows that industry insiders hope to take advantage of the opportunity of the exhibition to expand business opportunities, and have ardent expectations and urgent needs for business to return to the right track.
In recent years, the achievements of domestic automobiles "going to sea" have attracted attention, and the export of auto parts has become a hot topic in the automotive aftermarket. According to data from the General Administration of Customs, from January to October 2022, the export value of auto parts was 76.59 billion US dollars, an increase of 11.7% year-on-year, accounting for 58.9% of the total exports of auto goods.
However, due to the impact of adverse factors such as the new crown epidemic and high raw material prices, many auto parts manufacturers are still struggling. The industry, which has been delayed by the epidemic for three years, is riveted and will grow towards 2023.
And the Chinese auto parts companies that have set off again are also ushering in a new look.
In the past two decades, China's auto market has ushered in explosive growth, but independent car companies lag behind the world's advanced level in core technology, and state-owned automobiles generally have problems such as low efficiency and insufficient research and development capabilities, which also limits auto parts brands in the competition with traditional automobile powers when expanding the market.
After years of precipitation and development, auto parts enterprises continue to improve production technology, improve product quality, auto parts enterprises in the quality management system, global supply capacity and international product certification are constantly improving, formed a number of powerful parts manufacturing enterprises, in the international market competitiveness is also gradually enhanced.
On June 27, 2022, Automotive News magazine released the "2022 Global Top 100 Auto Parts Suppliers". The list is based on the operating income provided by global auto parts suppliers in 2021. According to the latest ranking of the list, Bosch, Denso, ZF, Magna International, and Aisin Seiki are still in the top 5; It is worth noting that China has a total of 11 companies on the list, two more than last year, and the highest ranking is still Yanfeng, which rose one place from the 2021 ranking to 17.
From the perspective of comprehensive strength, compared with the traditional automobile industry powers dominated by the United States, Europe and Japan, China's gap in technical standards, system standards, and global supply chain is gradually narrowing, and the brand value has been further extended.
This phenomenon has also been verified at this exhibition, and many Chinese auto parts brands have the strength to wrench the wrist with internationally renowned brands. "In recent years, we have invested more than hundreds of millions of dollars in R&D, and the proportion of R&D expenses to sales revenue has gradually increased. A laboratory, a technical research center and a product laboratory have been built, and the independent research and development capabilities have been further improved, and the brand awareness is constantly improving. Li Xiang, head of an auto parts company in Zhejiang, told Hugo Cross-border.
Large companies invest in improving technology, and small brands also have their own way of survival, "The company uses its own unique advantages and technical advantages to transform and upgrade to a vertical brand and become a small and beautiful service provider." An exhibitor from Jiangsu told Hugo Cross.
Stages such as Frankfurt are still one of the main channels for many brands to acquire customers, and it is also an important stage for brand display.
On the other hand, with the rise of new energy vehicles in China, the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain of complete vehicles and parts have been fully developed, and what opportunities and challenges service providers are currently facing in the fast-growing new energy vehicle market have become another major attraction of this exhibition. "The rapid growth of new energy vehicles is one of the focuses of this Shenzhen special exhibition." Yu Guangxiang, General Manager of Messe Frankfurt (Shanghai) Co Ltd, said in an interview that the exhibition increased the number of exhibitors who promoted green environmental protection products and new energy vehicles and other related enterprises in the automotive industry chain, and invited a number of new energy vehicle and power battery manufacturers to participate in the exhibition.
Different from the traditional fuel vehicle era Chinese brands are innately in a catch-up position, in the field of new energy vehicles, with the improvement of the competitiveness of independent brands, and the rise of new forces in car manufacturing, it has now won a rare first-mover effect, and in the current vigorous promotion of the global energy revolution, Chinese auto parts enterprises have been at the forefront of the world.
In the auto parts industry, where old and new forces gather, exhibitors hope to take advantage of the exhibition expansion opportunity to return the long-dormant business to normal, "With the easing of the global epidemic and the easing of supply chain problems, going out one day earlier means one more business opportunity." The person in charge of the above-mentioned Jiangsu auto parts enterprise said.
2. Inertial failure, how to find more possibilities?
Restart after braking, but the past growth inertia of auto parts has weakened or even disappeared, auto parts companies need to re-press the accelerator and accelerate now, and regain the growth momentum in the special 2023.
In addition to looking for business opportunities at the exhibition, the cross-border e-commerce platform has given enterprises with auto parts foreign trade experience and supply chain capabilities more opportunities. At the Shenzhen special exhibition, more and more cross-border e-commerce elements are emerging.
Some auto parts sellers told Hugo Cross-border that the car itself is a "standardized" product, and the long-tail whole vehicle parts are naturally suitable for the Internet platform play, so the cross-border e-commerce channel is receiving more and more sellers' attention, "The vast majority of Chinese auto parts manufacturers in the traditional trade era are OEM for foreign brands, and there are no extra channels to participate." ”
According to the different time stages of entering the whole vehicle, auto parts can be divided into the vehicle supporting market (OEM market) and aftermarket maintenance market (AM market). The huge car ownership is based on a rich industrial chain, and unlike the fierce vehicle supporting market, the after-sales maintenance market also leaves a richer imagination space for the auto parts industry.
Pang Tao, general manager of sales and category management of eBay Greater China, introduced to Hugo cross-border that unlike traditional channels such as exhibitions, e-commerce channels allow Chinese brands to contact more seller groups, taking eBay as an example, foreign buyer groups can be divided into four types: ordinary car owners, who can drive but do not repair cars; Modified car owners, players who like to play modified cars; Enthusiasts, this type of person not only transforms the entire appearance, but also the various systems; Auto parts repair shops or auto parts shops are also a very important source of purchase. "Among these, the three categories on the left other than ordinary car owners are collectively called professional buyers, and these professional buyers account for the majority of the platform's purchases."
At present, the downstream market demand of the auto parts industry tends to be small batches and multiple batches, and through the e-commerce platform, sellers will be able to contact more information and needs, "The value of the e-commerce platform is that the supplier directly consumes the end consumer, and the entire value chain system is very clear." Pang Tao said.
In this regard, Huang Chengwei, the brand leader of Clustertech, has a deep experience that since engaging in cross-border e-commerce, his experience of the difficulties faced by the industry has been deepened: first, the market space of traditional foreign trade has been seriously squeezed, and second, the lack of its own brand and core technology, the source of goods and supply chain is relatively passive.
In 2015, Huang Chengwei became the head of the eBay platform business of Clustertech, and led the company to gradually shift from the mode of finding and distributing goods, and from 2018, focusing on building its own brand in the vertical category of auto parts. Nowadays, the company uses high-value products + high-quality operation routes, relying on explosive products such as diagnostic instruments and infrared sensors to achieve double growth in annual revenue.
In traditional trade, overseas markets are relatively fragmented, and infrastructure and service requirements vary greatly from country to region, and how to play this game well is also challenging for enterprises planning to go overseas. "The complexity of automobile exports is much higher than other product categories, just take the certification standard system of various countries as an example, the EU's EEC, the GCC of the Gulf countries, and the GOST certification of the Russian Federation, will become a huge threshold for car exports to local countries, through cross-border e-commerce platforms, sellers can effectively solve these problems."
Standardized products are suitable for the development of cross-border e-commerce platforms, but the same SKU of auto and motorcycle parts products can adapt to dozens or even hundreds of models, and high-quality adaptability information is crucial.
To this end, e-commerce platforms have worked adaptability, "First of all, we must establish a complete database.
Secondly, we have a lot of these directories and tools to make these tasks easier later. Finally, we hope to provide buyers and sellers with better and easier operation to complete such an experience. "In August 2022, eBay also acquired myFitment Group, an auto and motorcycle parts user analytics tool that helps buyers quickly and accurately find the right parts for their vehicles." Due to the large number of auto parts and similar appearance, users can easily buy the wrong one. For sellers, myFit is also good for optimizing assembly data on product detail pages. ”
After three years of the epidemic, online and offline two-way interaction has become more and more frequent, "During the epidemic, foreign trade enterprises gradually promoted to cross-border e-commerce, but in the later stage, more and more buyers received 2B orders and customers through cross-border e-commerce platforms. Huang Chengwei said.
Chinese auto parts players who have withstood the ordeal are ushering in more possibilities.
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