The earthquake in the automobile industry has become an "emergency"

Small parts seem to be insignificant, but they are indispensable. Japan's auto parts suppliers, who have mastered many core technology products, have caused a lot of trouble for the entire automotive industry due to earthquake delays.

As a global producer of electronic materials, Japan has a global market share of more than 70% of many electronic materials. Although most of the electronic material factories are not in the disaster area, they may also affect production due to the interruption or shortage of electricity supply, which in turn affects downstream electronics production.

According to foreign reports, German automakers and auto parts suppliers are currently facing parts shortages caused by the devastating earthquake in Japan, and they are planning to reduce their production accordingly. General Motors Corp., the US’s largest automaker, recently stated that the company will suspend auto production activities at its two European plants due to the shortage of imported auto parts from Japan. China’s Geely’s Sweden’s Volvo Cars has announced that due to shortage of spare parts due to the Japan earthquake, its production at the Torslanda plant in Gothenburg, Sweden, and the Gent plant in Belgium have been affected. Volvo’s seven auto parts suppliers in Japan have stopped production due to the earthquake. Companies in France, South Korea, India and Thailand all stated that due to the impact of the strong earthquake in Japan, some car companies are looking for alternative suppliers.

The above information tells us an indisputable fact: the impact of the earthquake on the global automotive industry can be described as a result of the whole thing. In other words, the influence of the Japanese auto industry has spread to the world and the global auto industry cannot be separated from Japan.

This is a terrible fact. Chinese auto companies are strongly dependent on the import of Japanese auto parts. In 2010, the value of China's imported Japanese parts was US$10.91 billion, accounting for 39.9% of the total imports of auto parts and components of the country. . From the perspective of component classification, imports of transmission systems, brake systems, engine components, and steering system components accounted for 53.6%, 45.9%, 43.4%, 40.6%, and 34.7% of the total import value of China's corresponding components in 2010. The proportion is relatively high.

A related person from a Honda joint venture company stated that their spare parts inventory can now support up to two weeks, that is, around the end of March. Dongfeng Nissan stakeholders also stated that inventory parts can support up to 2 weeks. Although Toyota China did not have a clear statement, it said that the situation of Japanese car companies is similar.

Although the domestic auto manufacturers have already achieved a high localization rate - Accor, Odyssey, Corolla and other localization rates exceed 80%, but the precision of the core components such as the engine, automatic transmission, automotive electronics, etc. Production also has a certain reliance on Japanese companies, so the impact of domestic auto parts production and joint ventures is relatively large.

At present, the domestic joint venture company's imported parts inventory generally can maintain normal production for 2 weeks, and the logistic connection speed will become an important factor in whether the joint venture operates normally or not. As Yan Jianlai, the Minister of Parts of the Chinese Society of Automotive Engineers, said that the earthquake in Japan has affected China’s auto industry not as a high-tech accessory such as an electronic chip, but it is a common but inconspicuous gadget. At present, the level of finishing in the automotive industry in China is very backward, and low-value-added products are produced. Even if it is possible to introduce finishing equipment, it is difficult to produce because of lack of talent, technology and formula.

In a sense, Japan controls the key points of the entire automotive industry chain. It can directly control the lifeblood of the production and development process of many car companies around the world. Although Japan's industrial transfer is very large, it is not what we have imagined as "industrial hollowness." Japanese companies have always kept their core technology and profits in their hands, and only low-value-added parts have been removed. This is exactly where Japan can create the wisdom of the world's top three GDP.

In contrast, the problems exposed by the domestic side after the earthquake in Japan just confirmed the fact that China’s IT hardware industry still belongs to a low-level “manufacturing center” instead of a high-level “research and development center”: the quality of local electronic component companies And the production process is not enough to replace Japanese competitors.

Some analysts believe that Japanese luxury cars such as Lexus, Acura, Infiniti, etc. have not yet been produced locally. If the earthquake recovery time is long, it may affect the supply of Japanese companies in the domestic luxury car market, and thus affect their market share. Gives German and American luxury car brands such as BMW, Mercedes and Audi a chance.

The earthquake in Japan gave European and American car companies a chance to “risk.” For China, which claims to be the world’s first in terms of production and sales, the impact caused by the earthquake will have an impact. It is only due to backward technology and difficult to substitute that Chinese auto companies can only wait for Japan's spare parts companies to resume supply as soon as possible.

The suffering of others is just a warning to Chinese companies: China, with its backward technology, is still far away if it wants to realize the dream of a powerful automobile country. It has been time to accelerate the research and development of key technologies for automobiles.