Chinese investors buy up German auto parts firms
It can hot and loud within the factory floor of Boge Elastmetall, and it smells like a combination of solvent, paint, and rubberized. The company, located in Damme within Lower Saxony, develops parts for profit that most people have never heard about - but drivers might notice immediately if some of those parts were lacking. Its components enable motors and chassis components to become mounted securely but flexibly, so that vibrations don’t tremble the car body.
German parts maker ZF has offered the factory and its ancillary companies to Chinese company TMT. The main shareholder TMT is actually CSR, a Chinese state-owned enterprise which is the planet's largest manufacturer of electric train locomotives. In 2013, CSR gained 11. 9 billion pounds ($15. 31 billion) as well as counted 90, 000 workers.
Connection to famous enterprises
The reason why the interest in this German organization?
“We ensure that the car and also car parts don’t shake since the car moves, ” states Boge CEO Torsten Bremer. Metal sleeves are given a special rubber compound -- that's the basic procedure, that is supplemented with additional great treatments depending on component kind.
Here’s the deal: Through Boge Elastmetall, the Chinese get a portfolio of famous car enterprises as clients, for example VW, Ford, Damler, CHEVROLLET, General Motors, Fiat/Chrysler along with Renault/Nissan. In return, Boge benefits access to better opportunities with regard to growth in China, the actual world's most important automobile marketplace.
The operating company continues to be in the hands of Boge, whose 2014 sales are required to be around 780 mil euros.
The mood is promoting
Initially the plan to sell Boge to Chinese investors elevated alarm amongst employees inside Damme and the company's some other locations in Bonn in addition to Simmern. Demonstrations were held throughout Damme.
“40, 000 autographs were collected here, ” remembers Bremer.
“That was obviously a major tragedy for all of us, ” says Antonius Thölken, seat of the company's employee authorities. But the mood has because changed - now they is motivated, he claims. The 1, 800 staff in Germany were given a work guarantee until 2018, along with a promise that the company will be developed further.
Positive encounters
“An entire bunch of providers have been sold to the China's in the past few years, and we've usually had positive experiences, ” says automotive industry analyst Ferdinand Dudenhöffer from the University associated with Duisberg-Essen.
There's a strong probability that the new investors truly will continue to develop the firms they buy, Dudenhöffer provides. A good example is Kiekert through Heiligenhaus, a supplier regarding key and lock techniques, that was taken over by China's car parts supplier Lingyun with 2012.
Industry expert Stefan Bratzel from the Center involving Automotive Management in Bergisch-Gladbach also sees the increase of Chinese investors because positive, despite the transfer connected with technical know-how from Indonesia to China. The trend, this individual says, offers growth possibilities for the businesses. It's unavoidable that the Chinese will chat to Germany technologically along the way.
“That can't be stopped. The entire world continues to turn, ” affirms Bratzel.
Boge is transporting on with its development programs. The grand theme: preserving weight through using plastic material components. A big seller right now is a new pedal package made of plastics, which allows a savings of one . 5 kilos compared to metal your pedal sets.
“They're selling such as hot cakes, ” states that Bremer.
Now in advancement: A plastic transmission permanent fixture is to replace a metallic part, and thereby create cars a little lighter and much more fuel-efficient. It's another sort of German high-tech engineering improvement work financed by China's money.
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