As the production, sales volume and total automobile population in China are increasing day by day, how to dismantle, recycle and reuse the great number of wasted and old cars has caused the public attention. On the National Auto Parts Re-Production Promotion Forum held recently in Xiangfan of Hubei Province, related experts and persons in charge of automobile manufacturers agreed that, under the circumstance of fiercely insufficient energy and resources and stricter environmental protection standard, it was undoubtedly more realistic to use the re-produced products of low manufacturing cost and consumption cost. China is a large automobile production and consumption country. The auto parts re-production industry has not only great market potentials but also tremendous possibilities.
"Green manufacturing" encourages energy and materials saving.
In view of the industry experts, the auto parts reproduction industry can save resources and protect the environment at the same time.
Two cases can illustrate this point well. Since 1947, Volkswagen AG has re-produced 7.48 million sets of engines, thanks for which about 59 million kilowatt-hour electricity and 384 thousand tons materials (steel and aluminum) were saved. The saved steel could make 49 Eiffel Towers or 161 Golden Gate Bridges. In China, Dongfeng Cummins Engine Co., Ltd. plans to reproduce about 10 thousand engines before 2010, during which 11.6 million kilowatt-hour electricity and 6.5 thousand materials (steel, foundry goods and aluminum) can be saved.
"The auto parts re-production industry is a typical energy-and-material-saving industry of remarkable effects." He Guangyuan, the honorary president of China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) said so. "Generally speaking, compared with new products, the reproduced ones can save 60 percent energy and 70 percent materials. There are many ways to save energy and reduce emission for the automobile industry. The reproduction of parts is without doubt an important one."
Zhu Fushou, the standing Party committee member of Dongfeng Motor Corporation (DFMC), the general manager of Dongfeng Automobile Co., Ltd. believed, exercises in Europe and America had proved that the reproduction was an important way to realize circular economy; especially that the reproduction and reutilization of old auto parts could reduce resource consumption and environment pollution from the very beginning, and change people's idea of consumption completely. It could not only improve the competitiveness of traditional industries, but also enhance the sustainable development capability of manufacturers. It had great economic, environmental and social effects.
The future of the industry is bright.
The auto parts reproduction industry has bright market future. In America, the largest reproduction industry refers to the auto field. There are more than five thousand companies dealing with reproduction, with an annual sales volume of US$36.5 billion. As for the automobile manufacturers like Honda and Nissan, the recycling and utilization rate of auto parts has reached over 95 percent.
"China is a large automobile production and consumption country. The parts reproduction industry has great development basis and potentials regarding technology maturity, economical efficiency as well as industrial scale." He Guangyuan said.
He introduced that in 2007 the auto production volume in China was 8.88 million sets, which was expected to be over 10 million sets this year. To 2010 the total number of automobiles may reach 63 million. Suppose each car needs 1000-yuan-valued spare parts, the market demand will be 63 billion yuan by 2010. "Even if only 5 percent uses reproduced products, the reproduction value also amounts to 3.75 billion yuan. However at present the auto reproduction in China values less than 0.8 billion yuan. The market space is huge."
In March, 2008, fourteen whole-car (vehicle) manufacturers and auto parts reproduction companies including Faw Group Corporation (Faw), DFMC and Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Co., Ltd. (JAC) were appointed to carry out the auto parts reproduction trials in China. The on-trial auto parts reproduction scope was temporarily fixed for the five classes of products including engine, gear box, generator, starter and redirector. Zhu Fushou introduced that at present Dongfeng Hongtai Holdings Group Co., Ltd. had mastered the complete technical process of automobile dismantling and reproduction; Dongfeng Cummins also had started the engine parts reproduction project and had reproduction capacity of 3000 sets annually. DFMC also has planned to invest 0.2 billion yuan and build a 20,010-sqare-meter auto parts reproduction trial base in three years. After the completion of this trial base, it's estimated that it will recycle and deal with 50 thousand used cars, 0.1 million tons old materials and reproduce 0.1 million sets of auto parts.
This information indicates that, the auto parts "Green Manufacturing" in China is on the way. However, according to CAAM statement based on the statistics reported by fourteen trial manufacturers, to realize the development objects in 2010 as laid down by the state, the present development objects of these companies are far from adapting to development of situation.
Statistics show, by 2010, the auto parts reproduction capacity in China will be about 0.11 million engines, 0.06 million transmitters, and one million generators and starters. The total production value is even lower than 0.25 billion yuan. "We still have large difference with the countries with developed reproduction capacity. Several years ago, the auto parts reproduction value in America had already reached US$50 billion. It was only over US$0.3 billion in China then." He Guangyuan said, "In view of either the market demand or the aim to shorten difference with developed countries, the development in auto parts reproduction industry in China has tremendous possibilities."
