12 Chinese companies in global top 100 auto suppliers: Report

Twelve Chinese companies have been included among the top 100 car parts suppliers globally in 2020, with the whole auto market demonstrating strong resilience amid the COVID-19 pandemic, an industrial report said on Monday.

In cooperation with strategy consultancies Roland Berger and Berylls Strategy Advisors, China Automotive Daily analyzed the business revenue of nearly 500 car parts companies last year. China's Weichai Group took fourth spot in the global ranking, following German auto supplier Bosch, Denso Corp in Japan and another German industrial giant, Continental AG.

Weichai, the Shandong-headquartered manufacturer, generated revenue of 249.33 billion yuan ($38.50 billion) and crowned the domestic top 100 list. Hasco Automotive, BHAP, Joyson Electronics and CATL ranked second to fifth, respectively.

A total of 34 Chinese companies saw their revenue exceed 10 billion yuan last year, increasing from 31 in 2019, the report highlighted.

As the virus outbreak seriously struck car production and sales, cumulative revenue by the top 100 auto suppliers globally dropped over 10 percent year-on-year, while that in China witnessed a four-percent growth against the world's economic downturn, from 1.29 trillion yuan in 2019 to 1.35 trillion yuan in 2020.

In the challenging world last year, Chinese suppliers demonstrated remarkable resilience and sustainability in industrial development, said Thomas Fang, senior partner of Roland Berger.

Chinese auto parts manufacturers also ramped up investment in research and development, and the proportion of which in total revenue rose from 3.9 to 4.1 percent, hitting over 40 billion yuan in 2020.

"We found that R&D investment in the new energy vehicle sector accounted for the biggest proportion of companies' revenue, especially in the next-generation technologies, such as smart connection, intelligent cockpit and drive system," Fang said.

Jan Dannenberg, co-founder and partner of Berylls Strategy Advisors, said overall sales of the top 100 global automotive suppliers went substantially back in 2020, and profitability shrank by more than 50 percent compared to a year before.

However, he noted that only eight of the 100 suppliers registered actual growth last year, and the majority of those came from China.

"When we first did the survey in 2012, there was only one company, Weichai Power that came from China, but nowadays, about 10 percent of the top 100 are Chinese suppliers, and we expect this number will grow in the coming year," Dannenberg said.