寒凌解说:
印度新德里消息:印度汽车业在上一个年度出现了有史以来的萧条危机,业际人士指责这是中国汽车进口和印度国内市场萧条造成的。据印度汽车业的统计报道,中国是印度最大的外国汽车零部件供应商,在上一财政年度中,21%的进口总值中, 中国占了18%。
New Delhi: The turnover of India's auto component sector shrank for the first time ever in the past fiscal year, with manufactures blaming increasing Chinese imports and a tough local automotive market for the drop.
Local parts makers posted a turnover of Rs 2.11 lakh crore for the year ended on March 31, a 2% drop from the previous year's Rs 2.16 lakh crore, show data from the Automotive Component Manufacturers Association of India (ACMA).
The past fiscal year has been one of the worst in recent times for the automobile industry as factors such as weak consumer sentiment in a slowing economy and sticky inflation kept buyers away. Even as the impact of weak demand for cars and commercial vehicles spilled into the parts market, rising imports compounded the problems for manufacturers. Indian manufacturers have stepped up pressure on the government to impose anti-dumping duties on imports from China.
"Flagging vehicle sales, high capital costs, high interest rates, currency fluctuations and slowing down of investment in manufacturing, have adversely impacted the growth of the auto component industry," ACMA President Harish Lakshman said. The component industry's operating profit margin narrowed to 10% in fiscal 2014, from 12% in the previous financial year. While 30-35% of component manufacturing capacity was idled, some players pruned investments - total investments declined to $700 million (about Rs 4,200 crore), compared with $1.2 billion in the year before and $1.5 billion in fiscal 2012.
China was the biggest foreign supplier of auto components in India, accounting for 21% of the imports valued at $2.6 billion in the last fiscal year. In fiscal 2013, China's contribution to imports was 18%.
Total imports of auto components fell 6.6% to $12.8 billion in fiscal 2014, ACMA said in a news release. But in rupee terms, imports rose 3.6% to Rs 77,160 crore, as a weaker local currency boosted the cost of imports.
Availability of infrastructure support such as cheap power and hidden subsidies as well as economies of scale put China in an advantageous position, said Abdul Majeed, partner, automotive practice, at PwC.
Germany was the second biggest exporter to India, with 15% of the total imports originating from that country, followed by Japan, South Korea and Thailand. Indian auto component industry had a trade deficit of $2.6 billion as total exports stood $10.2 billion in fiscal 2014. Asia contributed 57% and Europe 34% to India's imports.
"Import from China used to be 10-12% but we have seen it increasing steadily which is a worrying trend and we are trying in multiple ways to counter this," said Lakshman. "Initiative such as anti-dumping duty is going to help."