Agence France-Presse

Agence France-Presse Singapore

German industrial giant Robert Bosch GmbH is accelerating into the Asia-Pacific automotive parts market amid rapidly growing demand for cars in China, India and other key countries.

Its automotive after-market division is aiming to increase its business turnover in the region by 30-40 percent in four years. The division now has an annual revenue of US$500 million from the Asia-Pacific area.

Bosch also wants to increase its slice of the Asia-Pacific pie from seven percent in 2002 to at least 10 percent in seven years' time.

Global demand for automotive after-market products is projected to exceed $130 billion by 2007, according to Bosch senior officials.

The after-market industry encompasses everything that happens after the sale of a vehicle, with Bosch specializing in products such as spark plugs and windscreen wipers.

"We are now making an extra push to intensify our efforts," Bosch's vice president for regional automotive after-market sales, Odd Joergenrud, told AFP in an interview.

"It's not like we are starting now but what we are actually doing now is to concentrate our efforts stronger in the region and put more focus in our strategy and the way we want to proceed."

To spearhead its push into Asia, Bosch announced last week it will set up a regional automotive operation in Singapore.

The growth strategy also involves expanding its network of car service centers in the region from 2,000 last year to 3,000 in 2006.

"Asia is, in the automotive after-market, a growing market, and a relatively fast-growing market," said Eugen Konrad, president of Bosch's automotive after-market division.

Regional demand is projected to grow between three and four percent in the coming years, above the world's average of 1.7-1.8 percent, Konrad said.

"It sounds very very low but normally the after-market is not growing very fast," Konrad said.

"If you go to Europe, it's one percent... if you go to America, its flat. So Asia is growing between three and four percent and if you go into some countries like China, it's even faster growing, so it's worthwhile to come over," he said.

Exciting markets on Bosch's Asian radar screen include Thailand, Indonesia and South Korea with China and India seen as particularly attractive because of their big populations, Bosch said.

Bosch wants its Asian business to grow twice as fast as the pace predicted for the region.

"We want to grow double as fast as the market so our growth target will be in the range of 7-8 percent... that is what we are aiming at," Joergenrud said.

Headquartered near Stuttgart, Bosch is one of Germany's largest industrial firms and the world's second largest supplier of automotive technology with the division generating sales of 23.3 billion euros (US$26.63 billion in 2002, almost 70 percent of the company's total turnover of 35 billion euros.

It is well established in Europe but there is still some catching up in Asia where Japan's Denso Corp. is undoubtedly the market leader, Bosch conceded.