At the 2014 Global Tire Technology Forum organized by the China Rubber Industry Association last month, the reporter learned that, in the face of frequent international trade barriers and constant “accidentsâ€, China’s tire companies have not complained about their unwillingness. They all agreed that they should solve “internal worriesâ€. Problems - making articles on the domestic market share.
However, at present, the domestic supplier tire market has formed an intrinsic supplier system, which cannot easily be entered overnight. However, it is gratifying that some large-scale tire companies rely on their comprehensive competitive advantage in the accumulation of operations and have achieved outstanding results in the development of supporting markets, setting an example for other companies.
Matching market is an important battlefield for competition
Supporting markets and replacing markets are complementary and symbiotic. Tire enterprises aim at entering the first-tier market and accumulate resources such as brand foundation, technical advantages, marketing experience, etc. through the replacement of the tire market into the supporting market; the original brand image of the tire market, sales channels, and end-consumer replacement tire brand habits, Reverse boosts the replacement of the tire market.
Therefore, although the supporting market requires companies to invest more in high-performance, high-tech and high-value-added products, and have more comprehensive strength, tire companies are proud to have a market for matching products. Position, stable supply requirements, and a larger replacement market behind.
According to the company Hankook available data, the proportion of the world and supporting the retail market is 2: 1, the Chinese market is 3: 2, the developed countries is 3: 7. In other words, in industrialized countries, more than 70% of the tire industry's demand is created by car ownership.
In recent years, China's automobile industry has flourished. In 2013, China's automobile production and sales volume was 22,116,800 and 21,894,100 units, ranking the first in the world for five consecutive years. Among them, passenger cars produced and sold 18.0582 million vehicles and 17.8299 million vehicles, and commercial vehicles produced and sold 4.0316 million and 4.0052 million vehicles.
According to the matching experience, the original tire ratios of different models are different, and the matching coefficient of passenger tires and light truck tires is 5, and the average of heavy truck tires is 12. According to this, it is predicted that in 2013, the demand for new automobile vehicles will reach 120 million.
In the replacement market, the replacement tire coefficient of each car is 1.5 per year, and the replacement tire coefficient of construction machinery and trucks is even higher. According to the data from the National Bureau of Statistics, the number of civilian vehicles in China reached 13.741 million at the end of 2013, an increase of 13.7% over the previous year. The demand for replacement tires is quite impressive.
The huge new car market demand and holding potential have made foreign tire companies optimistic about the Chinese market. They are trying their best to seize the Chinese matching market through China-owned or joint-venture tire factories. In the domestic mid-to-high end tire market, there are only a dozen local companies, while foreign and foreign-invested holding companies have more than 20 companies including Michelin, Bridgestone and Goodyear.
With strong capital and advanced technology, they have a market share of about 70% in the domestic passenger car and light truck radial tire market and are in absolute advantage. In the original tire market, high-end car manufacturers and the top ten international tire companies already have relatively stable supply relationships.
Han Lunjun, general manager of marketing strategy for Hankook Tire's headquarters in China, said that as China's car ownership increases significantly, the proportion of its supporting tires will become smaller and smaller, but Hankook will continue to adhere to the strategy of supporting high-end and building top brand image. .
The company's general manager, Jin Teng Cheng Jun, said that it will be used as the core of China's tire business. In addition to supporting Japanese cars, it will gradually expand its support for European and American cars and even Chinese domestic auto makers.
Local companies only share approximately 30% of the market share of passenger and light truck tires, and they are mainly concentrated in the replacement market. Their share in the matching market is very low. A small number of local leading enterprises have continuously increased their investment and are close to or have reached the world's advanced level in terms of technology research and development, equipment technology, production organization and management, etc., and are highly competitive in the segment of tires for passenger and light trucks. Product quality is gradually getting High-end market customer recognition.
Breaking the inherent pattern is not easy
How to improve the matching rate of passenger tires, the planning department of Beiqi Group and the director of the New Energy Planning Department Zhan analyzed the reasons and put forward sound recommendations for tire companies. “It takes 3 years for the car factory to develop a new model to design the product's positioning, selling points, parameters, etc. to determine which function to use, whether it is durable, manipulative or comfortable.†In short, at least 3 years ago, Qualified tire suppliers must cooperate with auto manufacturers to develop products, and it takes 2-3 years to become a supplier.
According to experts, establishing a cooperative relationship with a large automobile manufacturer requires necessary qualifications, meeting strict conditions and tedious procedures. As far as tire manufacturers are concerned, in addition to product standards, they must go through strict supplier qualification certification procedures, including experimental testing, on-site management review, trials, small-scale procurement, and large-scale procurement to verify product quality and supply. The stability of the goods. Vehicle companies also need to conduct annual audits, process audits, and project audits to select outstanding suppliers. Therefore, the new company needs a longer process to obtain the customer's approval.
From the perspective of the entire vehicle manufacturer itself, a stable supporting supplier system has been formed for a long time. The conversion and reconstruction cost of breaking the original cooperation relationship is high, and the cycle is long, so usually they will not easily change suppliers.
At the same time, with the shortening of the launch cycle of new cars, automakers’ product development has increasingly relied on suppliers to auto suppliers. In order to ensure the quality and timeliness of their vehicle products, automakers have established a two-way relationship with some suppliers. Depend on strategic partnerships. The establishment of this stable relationship generally takes 5-10 years.
Once it enters an automotive supplier system, it will begin with the support of a single product and a single vehicle model, and gradually expand to the range of the different models of the automobile manufacturer. On this basis, it has expanded into an integrated supplier system for a number of automotive manufacturers.
Therefore, the longer assessment cycle, high opportunity cost, stable cooperation relationship with suppliers, and higher supply capacity requirements are no exception for new companies, setting a high barrier to entry and breaking the existing competitive landscape. It is not easy.