BDA Business Development Asia ASIA IS A BUSINESS IMPERATIVE… NOW MORE THAN EVER ASIAN AUTOMOTIVE NEWSLETTER Issue 39, Apr 2004 A quarterly newsletter of developments in the auto and auto components markets CONTENTS CHINA INTRODUCTION ................................................ 1 ADVICS, the Japanese brake components supplier, CHINA ............................................................... 1 has established a new subsidiary, ADVICS Tianjin INDIA ................................................................ 3 Automobile Parts Co, in Tianjin, China. ADVICS INDONESIA ...................................................... 4 put up 95% of the capital and Toyota Tsusho, JAPAN .............................................................. 4 trading arm of the Toyota group, 5%, for a total KOREA ............................................................. 5 investment of US$18m. The unit will serve as a MALAYSIA ........................................................ 6 base for the manufacturing and sales of automotive THAILAND ......................................................... 6 brake systems and components in China. Operations are due to start in August 2004 and manufacturing will begin early 2005. Apr. 1, 2004 Baoshan Iron & Steel, China's biggest steel producer, is to supply Ford with steel sheets in INTRODUCTION Europe, having passed a series of quality trials involving a test batch of 700 tons. It is Baoshan's We hope you find the Asian Automotive Newsletter second major export contract, following a deal with informative. Fiat. In the first phase, Baoshan will supply "less than 5%" of Ford's European flat-carbon steel needs BDA is a corporate finance advisory firm that assists for 2004. Mar. 11, 2004 multinational clients in identifying and executing acquisitions, JVs and divestments in Asia. We Behr GmbH & Co KG of Germany has formed a have focused on the automotive sector since our new JV, Shanghai Sanden Behr Automobile Air founding in 1996 and are well placed to assist Condition Co Ltd, to produce 1.4m air conditioning companies from our Asian offices in Tokyo, Korea, systems this year and will raise production to 3m Shanghai, Hong Kong and Singapore. Contact by 2008. Behr will hold a 17.5% stake in the new details for these offices as well as those of our company, Japanese compressor maker Sanden New York and London offices are on the back page Corp will hold 35%, Shanghai Automotive Co of this newsletter. Ltd will have 38.5% and Shanghai Longhua Industrial Co Ltd will hold 9%. Mar. 8, 2004 If you think BDA’s advisory services may be of use to your firm, please contact me via email at DCX has begun searching for suppliers in China to [email protected], or call me in Tokyo at make low-cost parts for its operations worldwide, (81) 3-3433-5803. starting with local parts for a Mercedes-Benz plant that will begin assembling cars next year. DCX Charles Maynard expects to buy components both from JVs set up Asian Automotive Newsletter Issue 39, Apr 2004 BDA Business Development Asia in China by its existing suppliers and from Chinese priced between US$4,000 and US$19,000. Mar. parts makers. DCX already has a pool of local 08, 2004 suppliers who make parts for Beijing Jeep, the company's other JV in China. Other automakers Honda has filed a copyright infringement suit are looking to source cheap parts from China for against Shuanghuan Auto, alleging it has copied their worldwide operations. Both GM and Ford said the design of its CR-V sport-utility. Honda said it they expect to buy US$10bn worth of parts from had approached Shuanghuan, based in China over the next few years and are pressuring Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province, last September their suppliers to set up operations in China. Mar. asking it to stop production of its S-RV model after 1, 2004 finding that the vehicle's dimensions and design were identical to the CR-V's. Apparently, Eaton Corporation has signed an agreement to Shuanghuan would not give ground and so a suit form a 50/50 JV with FAW Jiefang Automotive was filed with a court in Beijing in November 2003. Co, the commercial vehicle subsidiary of China The case is still pending. Mar. 30, 2004 First Auto Works Group (FAW), to produce a complete line of medium-duty transmissions for Mazda will buy a stake in the Ford-Changan trucks and buses. Terms were not disclosed but Motor JV, paving the way for Changan Ford to sources suggest the deal involves a commitment build Mazda cars. Changan will retain its 50% stake of some RMB800m (US$96m). The JV, FAW Eaton in the JV. Mazda, which is controlled by Ford, Transmission Co, will build transmissions in currently works in China with First Auto Works FAW's existing factory in Changchun, Jilin subsidiary, FAW Car Co, building Mazda6 sedans Province. Mar. 31, 2004 and the Premacy compact MPV. Apr. 2, 2004 Changan Ford, China's biggest mini-vehicle maker, Nissan Motor Co's JV in China, Dongfeng Motor said it had signed a MoU for land use rights to Co, announced that it would set up a US$40m car build a second passenger car manufacturing plant, R&D center in Guangzhou, China. The center will at a greenfield site in Nanjing. Further details are work closely with Nissan's R&D center in Japan, being withheld pending government approval. The beginning in 2005. Under a four-year business plan new manufacturing site is officially part of Changan announced in November, Dongfeng Motor plans to Ford, a JV with Changan Automobile Group. introduce five-passenger models in China. It hopes Ford also is negotiating with another JV partner, to sell 300,000 units by 2007, compared with Jiangling Motor Corp, to produce the Freestar 74,000 last year. Mar. 29, 2004 minivan, sources said. Feb. 23, 2004 Sundram Fasteners of India is setting up a factory Taiwan Green Point, Taiwan's handset case in the Haiyan Economic Development Zone (HEDZ), maker, will enter the auto business through a JV Zhejiang Province, to manufacture and sell high- for precision plastic parts with Gaudlitz of tensile fasteners to the Chinese auto industry. The Germany. The new unit, Gaudlitz & Green Point, 100% owned subsidiary, Sundram Fasteners will have a factory in mainland China, starting with (Zhejiang), will initially have an investment of a capital base of US$6m. Gaudlitz is to take a US$5m and a capacity of 6,000 tons. Mar. 13, controlling 51% interest in the factory in Suzhou, 2004 Jiangsu Province. Feb. 27, 2004 Toyota announced plans to set up a 50/50 JV with Geely Group, the privately held Chinese carmaker, FAW Group Corp to manufacture 130,000 engines says it will spend more than US$121m this year to a year in Changchun, Jilin Province. Capitalized at more than double car production to 165,000 vehicles US$84.5m, the FAW Toyota Changchun Engine from 81,000 vehicles in 2003. Geely's cars are Co Ltd (FTCE) will produce engines for the Crown luxury sedan, which is to be made by another 2 Asian Automotive Newsletter Issue 39, Apr 2004 BDA Business Development Asia Toyota/FAW group JV, Tianjin FAW Toyota Motor a US$200m engine JV in China. Final agreement Co Ltd. FTCE is the third engine manufacturing is expected later this year. Volvo would own 52% company established in China by Toyota. Mar. 29, and CNHTC and FAW 24% each of the new 2004 company, which will manufacture heavy engines based on the Volvo Group's new platform. Mar. 29, Toyota has set up a 90/10 JV to make large 2004 automotive stamping dies with China FAW Group Corp. Capitalized at US$12m, Toyota FAW Volvo’s Renault Trucks unit has agreed to set up (Tianjin) Dies Co will begin operation in November, a JV with Chinese truck producer Dong Feng and factory construction and equipment installation Motors. Under the agreement Renault Trucks will are set to begin soon. Mar. 15, 2004 buy a stake in Dong Feng Liuzhou Motors, a Dong Feng subsidiary, in 2004. The stake size and Toyota and Guangzhou Automobile broke ground price have yet to be decided. The JV is to produce for their new JV, Guangqi Toyota Engine Ltd 7,000 trucks a year for the Chinese market in five (GTE), for the production of automobile engines. years time. January 28, 2004 GTE will will have an annual production capacity of 300,000 units and is scheduled to produce 25,000 Volvo and its Chinese partner, SAIC, are to set up engines in 2005, all for export to Japan. GTE is a new JV in Qingdao, Shandong Province, named capitalized at ¥14.6bn, (US$133m), with Toyota Sunwin. Volvo and SAIC will take a controlling investing 70% of the capital and Guangzhou 51% stake in the new JV while the state-run Qingdao Automobile the remaining 30%. Feb. 25, 2004 Public Transportation Group will hold 49%. Mar. 12, 2004 TRW Automotive and FAWER Automotive Components Co have announced the formation of Yokohama Rubber has won approval to set up a TRW FAWER Commercial Vehicle Steering company in Hangzhou City to manufacture and (Changchun). The new JV will focus on the market sealants for passenger cars. In the first manufacture and sale of steering gears for the phase, Yokohama Rubber will build a factory with commercial vehicle market. One of its major an annual production capacity of 1,000 tons, customers will be FAW Trucks, the biggest bringing it on stream in Jan. 2005, at a cost of truckmaker in China. TRW Automotive has nine US$1.5m. The second phase, costing a further facilities in China, including seven JV facilities. Mar. US$2.2m, will double capacity within three years. 18, 2004 Mar. 19, 2004 Valeo SA will invest up to US$630m in new factories in China in the next two to three years.