Strong economic growth coupled with low car ownership rates and rising incomes has turned Asia into a gold mine for the automotive industry. The eventual shift in OEM’s and auto-parts manufacturers focus toward Asia has led to a rapid growth in vehicle assembly in many parts of Asia, most notably China, India and South Korea.
Over the past decade the components industry has gone through a complete remodelling leading to the emergence of highly competitive global industry. Multinational vehicle manufacturers have not only become a prominent part of the Asian components industry supply chain but have also started using the local Asian suppliers for their regional and global component needs.
This presents challenges for local and global suppliers respectively. Small and medium size local suppliers are being forced to advance technological expertise as rapidly as possible. Development of much improved quality and delivery performance is also paramount.
Although targeted initially at servicing the burgeoning local vehicle manufacturing sector, new investments by suppliers could also become future substantial low-cost export bases for components.
The Asian Supplier Report provides insights into how this new supply base is evolving and reviews alternative supplier strategies. The introductory chapter presents an overview of vehicle manufacturing trends in the key countries in Asia and reviews the impact of announced new OEM investments.
The following chapters briefly analyze key trends and developments in a number of countries in Asia, including Japan, China, India and South Korea.
Section 2 presents detailed profiles of 113 key suppliers currently active in Asia. More than half of these are locally-based suppliers, while around one-third are major global tier-1 players that already have defined Asian strategies in place.
