Sep. Fighting SAIC Fiat's tough new joint venture partner


Chen Hong regards going to Nanjing as commonplace, because with Nanqi, he often needs to take care of it. But this time it was different. As president of SAIC, he spent a week in Nanjing. This week, the "person" he wants to see is Fiat.

Intimate Contact - Joint Venture Program reached in September

In the past few days, the weather in Nanjing was very hot, which made Chen Hong feel embarrassed. Recently, he has done two things. First, he met with relevant Iveco executives to communicate with the Fiat Group in the field of commercial vehicle cooperation. Second, he worked hard for SAIC Motor to consolidate the status of the first group army in the automotive industry.

According to insiders from SAIC, SAIC may establish a joint venture with its subsidiary Iveco, and the cooperation framework may be reached in September.

Iveco is an important brand of commercial vehicles under the Fiat Group. Prior to this, Iveco had a joint venture with Nanjing Automobile Group. Now through the acquisition of Nanqi, SAIC hopes to have a closer relationship with Iveco. “Before, SAIC Group has been in contact with the Fiat Group for many times.” According to the above-mentioned sources, the commercial vehicle business has been SAIC's “short board” and it is necessary to stabilize the top spot of the auto group. Chen Hong believes that integration is the only way to go.

It is reported that if the joint venture with Fiat's commercial vehicles is successful, SAIC will set up a commercial vehicle company. At present, Nanjing Iveco and Chongqing Hongyan heavy truck plants will become their subordinate factories. In addition, drawing on the successful experience of Shanghai General Motors' Pan-Asian Automotive Technology Center, SAIC hopes to form a technology research and development center with Fiat after the formation of the new joint venture.

The Pan-Asia Automotive Technology Center is a joint venture automobile technology and design center established jointly by SAIC Motor and General Motors in 1999. The company has trained a large number of automotive technicians for SAIC. For SAIC, the full cooperation with Fiat not only allows it to have a full range of commercial vehicle products, but also enhances SAIC's technology from heavy trucks, medium trucks, light trucks to passenger cars.

Hard to break through - SAIC, Fiat are all late comers

However, things do not seem to be so simple, because the two sides are still controversial on some key issues.

The idea that the Fiat Group wanted to hold 51% of the shares in the new joint venture was rejected by SAIC. “Foreign parties always have the idea of ​​breaking through the proportion of joint ventures,” said SAIC insiders that Fiat, who has been cultivating for many years in the Chinese market, understands the game rules of the Chinese market (Chinese automobile industry policy rules, Sino-foreign joint ventures, foreign shareholding ratio Cannot exceed 50%. "This is a foreign trial. Only when the share ratio reaches one to 50:50, the joint venture project can be promoted quickly." Regarding this, Fiat officials are not allowed.

However, even if the joint venture is successful, it is impossible for both parties to relax.

"It will be sooner or later for SAIC to enter the commercial vehicle sector." A senior executive of Foton Motor, who did not want to be named, disagreed with SAIC Fiat. It is understood that the current top ten commercial vehicle sales companies followed by: Beiqi Futian, Dongfeng, FAW, Jianghuai, Chongqing Changan, Jinbei shares, heavy truck, Jiangling, Kama and SAIC-GM-Wuling.

In November 2002, SAIC reorganized Wuling and established a joint venture with General Motors China and Liuzhou Wuling Automobile. SAIC holds a 50.1% stake. In 2006, SAIC-GM-Wuling sold its number one position in the micro commercial vehicle market. Since then, it has maintained its position as the dominant micro commercial vehicle. However, SAIC has been criticized for lacking its own brand in the field of commercial vehicles.

In June 2007, after restructuring with Chongqing CNHTC and a joint venture with Fiat Group, SAIC established SAIC Iveco Hongyan Commercial Vehicle Co., Ltd. to produce medium-to-high-end heavy trucks; at the end of 2007, SAIC acquired Nanjing Automobile Group. Nanjing Iveco Motors Co., Ltd. was included in the production of light commercial vehicles; in January 2008, SAIC acquired Shanghai Diesel Engine Co., Ltd. for more than 900 million yuan, holding a 50.32% share and obtaining a diesel engine plant.

However, through a series of mergers and acquisitions, production and sales of SAIC's commercial vehicles remain unsatisfactory. In addition to SAIC-GM-Wuling sales ranking first among market segments, other products have not entered the market mainstream: Shanghai Huizhong, a wholly-owned company, has sold only a few thousand vehicles each year, and Nanjing Iveco Lightbus has sold more than 20,000 vehicles each year. “The SAIC Group attaches great importance to R&D in commercial vehicles for the past two years, but there is no breakthrough at present.” SAIC Motor’s insider admits.

"The full cooperation between SAIC and Fiat commercial vehicles may be achieved in the short term. However, for Fiat, it also faces the fact that China's commercial vehicle mainstream market is occupied by local brands, and foreign brands only occupy the high-end market segmented reality." Some insiders told the reporter that although the two sides have a joint venture is an inevitable choice, but the prospects are not clear.

Chen Hong once again reiterated that it would be one of the four major economic tasks and key tasks of Shanghai Automotive in 2009 to “integrate the resources of commercial vehicle plates and strive to achieve an overall break-even”. He hopes that by integrating with Fiat, he can open up the internal resources of its commercial vehicles such as Nanjing Iveco, SAIC Fiat Red Rock, Shangchai, and Huizhong. "It's like a Chinese medicine shop. Parts are produced and parts are assembled according to needs." SAIC insiders said that SAIC is developing a set of software so that the information of the sub-factories can be linked. "This has played an important role in the integration of passenger cars and hopes it will also be beneficial to commercial vehicles."


View related topics: Joint venture hot car


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