Car seat industry competition is fierce

In recent years, with the rapid growth of China's auto market, the number of social automobiles has continued to increase, the demand for car seats has also increased, and market competition has intensified. In particular, since 2009, under the impact of the financial crisis, the foreign auto market has been sluggish, China's auto market has picked up rapidly, and thriving, automakers at home and abroad have accelerated the deployment of China's auto seating market. For a time, China's car seat market has shown intense competition.

Foreign brands have obvious competitive advantages

As the largest automobile producer and consumer country, the domestic car seat market has been dominated by foreign brands. It is understood that the passenger car seat market in China is currently dominated by joint ventures dominated by foreign companies such as Johnson, Lear, Foglia, Intier, and Ties, and only a Johnson Controls company in the United States is in China. Ten joint ventures for car seats and in-car products were established, which accounted for nearly 30% of the national market.

From the standpoint of car seat production technology, there is a very strict process for the design and testing of high-end car seats. The seat structure may seem simple, but its supporting technology with the vehicle and key zeros for recliners, slides, etc. The process requirements of the components are relatively high. Because the system design and manufacturing of the seat have considerable difficulty, the industry barriers to entry of the seat assembly are relatively high. Passenger car system integration companies that are recognized by the world’s major vehicle companies have only Johnson Controls, Lear, and Foggy. Asian, English Tyre and several others.

Due to the constraints of technology and other factors, most seats in China are steel frame structures and the price is 1/5 to 1/2 of the high-end products.

Self-owned brands take the low end of the route and intensify competition

It is understood that until now, there are about 700 car seat manufacturers in China. Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Guangdong are the production centers for car seats in China. Relevant person in charge of Zhejiang Tiancheng Co., Ltd. introduced to reporters that at present, China has a large number of small-scale car seat manufacturers. Low-end car seat products flood the market and there is a problem of excess capacity. At the same time, it also led to serious disorder in the domestic car seat companies.

In order to improve product competitiveness and improve the safety of car seats, some of China's powerful seat manufacturers are increasingly focusing on car seat design. It is understood that Fuzhou Huakun Racing Parts Technology Research Co., Ltd., Jiangyin City, Jiangsu Dexin Automotive Parts Seating Co., Ltd., based on ergonomic principles of the car seat shape improvement, reduce the seat design and the human body structure does not match And the risk of injury, but more domestic car seat manufacturers still choose the "low quality and low price" line.

Zeng Jianwei, general manager of Zhengzhou Longma Automobile Products Co., Ltd. believes that in the fierce competition, the market is difficult to hide the chaos of mutual exclusion. He commented on the current car seat market: “There are many problems in the self-branded seats such as severe homogeneity, disorderly price, disordered quality and other issues. As long as there is a new product market launched by one manufacturer in the market, it is reflected immediately. There will be a lot of manufacturers to follow up. Homogenization makes the new product's life cycle become shorter and shorter, and the price drops again and again."

Competition intensifies and domestic companies do not need to break through

In recent years, people have made increasingly higher demands on car safety, environmental protection, energy saving, and comfort. This has led to a profound change in vehicle consumables and accessories. A market survey shows that the factors that consumers choose to use in car seats are safe, comfortable and light, and car seat design and vehicle exterior design are the two main factors for consumers to buy cars.

Foreign-funded enterprises with obvious technological advantages have won the favor of domestic consumers by increasing their technological content. “As a leader in the seat system market, we hope that the research and development of new products will help reduce fuel consumption and CO2 emissions at the same time. In addition, the innovative combination of new materials and new seat structures will open up many new opportunities.” Related to Johnson Controls The person in charge introduced the reporter. The Lear Group, a leading car seat marketer, also lost no time in launching lightweight seats.

Some experts pointed out that with the development of the automotive industry, changes in car seat demand, the major car seat companies to speed up the market layout, China's car seat industry will enter the price competition, market segmentation and other fierce competition.