On June 26, the “Seminar on the Innovation and Development of Auto Parts Enterprises Going Overseas and the White Paper on the Competitiveness of Core Enterprises in the Global Automotive Supply Chain” jointly sponsored by China Automobile News Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “China Automobile News”) and China Automotive Engineering Research Institute Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as China Automotive Research Institute) was held in Suzhou. With the theme of “Collaborative Innovation, Intelligent Driving the World”, the conference brought together leading experts, industry institutions and representatives of industrial chain enterprises to face the challenges of going to sea and seek a new ecology of global development.
Going overseas and upgrading: from supporting to a new engine of global growth
Liu Anmin, general manager of China Automotive Research Institute, pointed out in his opening speech that the global automobile industry is undergoing deep changes, and the wave of electrification and intelligence has driven the accelerated restructuring of the industrial pattern. In 2024, China’s automobile industry will achieve leapfrog development, with global exports reaching 6.4 million units, a year-on-year increase of 23%, surpassing Japan for two consecutive years to become the world’s largest automobile exporterHuaweiThe core engine of industrial growth. In the process of globalization, Chinese auto parts companies are facing both historic opportunities and multiple challenges: technical barriers from “compliance access” to “technology leadership”, trade challenges from “tariff response” to “rule restructuring”, and supply chain system problems from “single point delivery” to ecological integration. It is difficult to achieve a comprehensive breakthrough by the power of a single enterprise alone, and only through open cooperation and resource sharing can we gather greater development momentum. This is also the meaning of the theme of the conference, “Collaborative Innovation”.
Gui Junsong, editor-in-chief of China Automobile News, emphasized the importance and necessity of discussing the topic of “going to sea”. For China’s automobile industry, “going overseas” is an important, urgent and grand topic. With the acceleration of the internationalization process of vehicle enterprises in recent years, the overseas progress has shown a new situation, showing new value and new significance.
At present, the entire auto parts industry is showing unprecedented vitality and resilience on the journey to overseas, and more and more companies are actively going overseasCapacityLayout, close to the target market to establish production bases and R&D centers. At the same time, technological innovation is becoming the core engine driving overseas expansion. Chinese parts companies have continued to invest in R&D and accumulate technology for many years, and have begun to bear fruit on the international stage. Some innovative products and technical solutions with international leading level are gradually gaining recognition in the global mainstream market.
Competitiveness Ruler:《white paper》Witness the rise of China’s supply chain
In recent years, the automotive industry is transforming and upgrading in the direction of intelligence, electrification and networking at an unprecedented speed, which has not only reshaped the face of the automotive industry, but also posed new challenges and requirements for the global automotive supply chain.
The White Paper on the Competitiveness of Core Enterprises in the Global Automotive Supply Chain (hereinafter referred to as the White Paper) is an authoritative study launched by China Automobile News in 2014, aiming to present the current situation and future trend of the global automotive supply chain to the industry, and has been jointly created by Roland Berger Enterprise Management (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Roland Berger) since 2018 It is an authoritative work with insight into the industry pattern and the strength of benchmarking enterprises, and an important reference guide for research in the field of global automotive supply chain.
The release site of the “White Paper”
The “White Paper” released this time is supported by the German Berui Management Consulting Company, which is more extensive and in-depth in data collection, covering the data of more than 350 automotive supply chain enterprises around the world, and its core highlights – the global automotive supply chain Top 100 and China’s automotive supply chain Top 100, not only clearly outline the current industrial competition pattern at home and abroad, but also provide a valuable action guide for Chinese supply chain enterprises to aim at the international advanced level and grasp the global competition situation. At the same time, it also provides an important source of information for international automobile companies to gain an in-depth understanding of the advantages of China’s automobile supply chain and discover high-quality partners.
Yuan Wenbo, global partner of Roland Berger, analyzed in the interpretation of the “White Paper” that the development trend of global auto parts shows three major characteristics: the head enterprises are relatively solidified, and the top 10 has fewer changes, of which only 3 have achieved positive growth; Growth enterprises mainly rely on mergers and acquisitions to create full-stack solutions, seize new growth businesses and regional opportunities, and at the same time carry out supply chain restructuring and efficiency cost optimization; The number of Chinese enterprises has increased, and 3 new Chinese companies in the global automotive supply chain have been listed, and the Yangtze River Delta regional cluster of new enterprises has emerged, mainly relying on intelligent and international layout growth, entering the world’s Top 100.
From the perspective of industrial pattern, the auto parts industry is ushering in a new development pattern under the profound influence of intelligence and electrification. First of all, the new four modernizations bring new value highlands such as three electrics, intelligent driving, and intelligent cockpits, and the value distribution of the parts industry chain is reshaped. The second is the transformation of integrated collaboration, under the background of intelligence, under the transformation of vehicle development from traditional distributed to domain centralization/domain integration, parts companies urgently need to have system-level solution capabilities in addition to single product supply; OEMs continue to try to deepen their self-development, but in the long run, the industry will eventually return to the efficiency-first supplier model, but parts suppliers need to have both system technical capabilities and flexible cooperation models. In terms of going overseas, leading parts companies are closely following the trend of automobiles going overseas, accelerating global layout and opening up new growth space.
Yuan Wenbo also emphasized that Chinese parts companies should become bigger and stronger, in addition to relying on technology and products, but also relying on brands, enterprises must learn to spread brand image and value, in order to make the story of China’s supply chain go global.
Tackling tough problems in deep-water areas: collaborative innovation creates a new ecology for going to sea
According to data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, from January to May 2025, automobile exports will be 2.49 million units, a year-on-year increase of 7.9%;New energy vehiclesexports were 855,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 64.6%, reflecting the strong strength of China’s automobile exports.
Sun Xiaohong, secretary-general of the Automotive Internationalization Professional Committee of the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Mechanical and Electrical Commodities, pointed out in her sharing that before 2023, the export of parts in China’s automotive industry was much higher than that of vehicles, but in 2024, this data has undergone structural changes, and vehicle exports have exceeded parts. From the perspective of key parts exports, the main reason is that it is greatly affected by geopolitics, but with the accelerated restructuring of the global industrial chain and supply chain, China’s parts exports are also looking for new opportunities and soil.
Global competition is not only a competition between enterprises, but also a competition in the industrial chain ecosystem. The synergy between vehicles and parts, the symbiosis between Chinese and foreign companies, and the resonance between technology and the market are indispensable. China’s automobile industry seems to be thriving, but the phased structural changes also reflect the fragility and uncertainty behind it.
In the roundtable discussion session of “Enterprise Capability Transformation in Going Overseas”, representatives of Yinlun Co., Ltd., Yijiatong Technology, China Automotive Research Institute, Wanfeng Group, Roland Berger and other enterprises collided with each other from multiple dimensions such as strategy, technology, and operation on issues such as “what are the reefs under the prosperity of going overseas” and “the competencies that need to be supplemented urgently in the process of internationalization”.
Roundtable discussion
Cao Qingyun, assistant general manager of Yinlun Co., Ltd. and general manager of Shanghai Yinchang Trading Company, pointed out that the company gradually practiced four internationalizations in 2010: product internationalization, talent internationalization, management internationalization, and manufacturing internationalization, but the biggest challenge at present is still the lack of international talents.
Gong Siying, senior director of product products of Yijiatong Technology, said that as a global automotive intelligent enterprise, Yijiatong is steadily laying out internationalization around the different needs of customers at home and abroad, and has set up R&D centers in many overseas places to undertake localized adaptation and development. “Starting from the technical dimension I am responsible for, Yijiatong is accelerating the development of forward-looking tool chains and introducing AI large model technology to apply assistance in code generation, testing and other research and development links.
He Liyong, director of export certification of the Overseas Business Department of China Automotive Research Institute, gave sincere opinions on enterprises going overseas, and Chinese parts companies must understand the relevant laws and standards in advance when developing overseas products, in order to design products according to local standards and reduce unnecessary costs.
Dong Ruiping, director of the management center of Wanfeng Auto Holding Group, raised concerns about overseas competition and called on Chinese parts to go overseas and not bring domestic “involution” overseas to form a new “outvolution”. The guests at the meeting all agreed with this.
Shi Zhigang, marketing ambassador and partner of Roland Berger Automobile, made suggestions to parts suppliers in a timely manner, automobile suppliers should focus on core areas and regions, control the cost base, and establish strategic partners, and proposed that Chinese car companies go global, Chinese design goes global, headquarters design center breakthroughs, Chinese capital goes out, and overseas new forces enter the five major overseas paths, and encourages Chinese parts companies to explore diversified cooperation methods with the goal of globalizing the market.
What goes out is the product, what goes in is the ability, and what goes on is win-win. As China’s supply chain enterprises change from cost undertakers to technology enablers, the new global industrial order is being reconstructed.
As Gui Junsong said in his speech, the internationalization journey of China’s automobile industry still faces many severe tests, such as the uncertainty of the international trade environment, significant differences in technical standards and regulatory requirements in different regions, cultural integration, compliance management, cost control, etc. involved in localized operations. In the face of such a situation, in order to achieve high-quality overseas expansion, China’s auto parts industry needs the two-wheel drive of “synergy” and “innovation” to build a closer and more harmonious industrial ecology.
The globalization process of China’s auto parts industry is undergoing a historic transformation from scale expansion to quality improvement, from cost-driven to innovation-driven, and from a single link breakthrough to the construction of the whole ecosystem. The White Paper released today also clearly confirms this trend. Looking to the future, Chinese auto parts companies are taking collaborative innovation as the oar and intelligent drive as the sail to jointly sail towards the sea of stars in the global automobile industry.
