It's roughly since the mid-2007 when China began to face mounting pressure of product safety concerns from its trading partners, which, as market observers commented, is a major obstacle for China to move toward being a dominant power on the international market. Though the spate of product recalls and bans in the U.S. over the past few months were mostly about toys, toothpaste, seafood, ...

China's ever expanding auto industry seems to show no sign of slowing down in the foreseeable future. Official statistics show a potential for the industry to maintain a high growth of 15-20% in annual production value during 2007-2008, following the phenomenal 27.5% growth in 2006. China is now the world's third largest car producer, turning out 7.28 million units of cars in 2006. Automechan...

Thanks to a remarkable price/performance ratio, China's indigenous passenger car brands have established a firm foothold in the domestic market there, breaking the dominance of the market by leading international brands. The output of local brands in China hit 660,000 units in the first half of 2007, accounting for 28.9% of the domestic market and outpacing German, American, and Japanese brand...

With over 70% of the leading international auto-parts makers having ventured into the Chinese market, the homegrown counterparts have been forced to wake up to the harsh reality of growing competition in the domestic market, which is unusually rough going considering the often-reported near chaotic conditions in the domestic market, where intellectual property is rarely respected and copycatting ...

Status of the Chinese Automobile Electronics Industry Along with the robust development of the Chinese auto industry, the Chinese automotive electronics industry has been growing by leaps and bounds in recent years, with its output value topping US$11.5 billion in 2006, which is expected to exceed US$12.5 billion in 2007 and US$26 billion by 2011. Auto Stereo and GPS Are Mainstays In-car e...

Denso Corp., Japan's leading auto parts maker, has announced its decision to step up investments in China, in a bid to increase sale in the Chinese market to 220 billion Japanese yen by 2010, up from 2006's 150 billion yen. Though a company on the world's top-500 list of enterprises and the world's second largest auto-parts supplier, Denso has much lower visibility in China than that of...

China (Nanjing) Auto Lamp & Lighting Expo 2007 drew a significant turnout of around 15,000 buyers and exhibitors globally when it took place last September in an area of the Jiangsu Province which is purportedly to be driven by the most powerful automobile industry in China-accounting for 40% of China's auto lamp production. All big auto lamp producers, either domestic or foreign companies, ...

The automotive mold or tooling industry in eastern China is centered around Shanghai, Zhejiang Province, and Jiangsu Province, with the emergence of such industry in Shanghai dating back to the 1950s and in the latter two locations to the 1980s. Shanghai The automotive tooling sector in Shanghai features significantly large working scale, high technological level, and is capable of turni...

Along with explosive expansion of the Chinese automotive market, so has the nation's tire market been growing at extraordinary pace in recent years. Following the 11% growth in the Chinese tire market in 2006, among the highest worldwide, 2007 has been a year of challenge for the Chinese auto-tire industry, due to the implementation of new tire standards in the U.S. and Europe, the lowering ...

China now boasts 100 automotive clutch makers, 80% of which supply lower-end models such as one-piece and two-piece clutches, peripheral-spring clutch, and central-spring clutch. But the introduction of imported oil-film clutch technology in the early 1990s has enabled some makers to engage in producing such clutches of either pushing or pulling types, with some larger suppliers boasting annual c...