In spite of slowdown in sales, parts makers still investing

Huge potential

"We see huge potential from the strong demand for safety technologies in China's developing commercial vehicle sector," said Xu Baoping, managing director of Knorr-Bremse in China. "China's truck market is bigger than that of Europe and the US in combined. So the current demand for safety technology in braking can provide inestimable business opportunities for our company."

French automotive technology company Valeo expects that China will become its largest market in the world by 2015. They are anticipating sales in the country will be double the current level by then. In 2012, Valeo generated more than 10 billion yuan worth of revenue in China, 10 percent of its global business.

In 2011, the total revenue of China's automotive parts companies surpassed 2 trillion yuan. Dong Yang, vice-chairman of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, predicted that despite a slowdown in China's automobile market growth, the country's automotive parts sector will maintain a rapid annual growth rate of more than 20 percent over the next few years.

"The potential comes not only from slowing but still increasing vehicle sales but also from the after-sales services needed to accommodate a huge accumulated vehicle capacity," said Dong. "The revenue in the parts market will reach 2.5 trillion yuan by 2015."

Statistics show, as of the end of 2012, China had 125 million vehicles on roads, and the figure will continue to increase by 20 million per year.