Germany's Bosch Group fires up for further growth

German industrial giant Bosch Group reported 13 percent growth in its China sales last year as a "consequence of continuous investment and localization strategy", the company said in a recent statement.

Its sales in the country last year totaled 42.3 billion yuan as all three of its business sectors performed well.

Automotive technology, its largest business in China, generated revenues of 24.9 billion yuan last year, a 7 percent increase over 2010.

Its industrial technology operations increased sales by 28 percent to 10 billion yuan, while revenues at its consumer goods and building technology sector rose 18 percent to 7.3 billion yuan.

The robust growth came after a company-record 4.1 billion yuan investment in China last year, which "further strengthened the core business of Bosch China", the company said.

Bosch said that it will maintain yearly investment of 3 to 4 billion yuan in China until 2015.

"China's economy is expected to grow steadily and so will keep its strategic market position within the Bosch Group," said Uwe Raschke, the company's board member with responsibility for the Asia-Pacific region.

China became the third-largest market for Bosch worldwide in 2010, following only Germany and the US.

Bosch also said in the statement that its employees in China numbered about 30,200 by the end of last year, a total expected to rise to about 50,000 by 2015. Some 90 percent of all manager-level positions will be offered to Chinese employees by then, it said.

Bosch now has 13 technical centers across its three business sectors in China where some 2,700 associates work on local research and development.

Most recently it agreed to form a joint venture with domestic carmaker Chery and Australia's Atech Automotive to develop and manufacture instrument clusters and car infotainment equipment. Production will start later this year on products not only sold in China but also in other Asia-Pacific markets.

Bosch has a 60 percent stake in the partnership based in East China's Anhui province, with Chery holding 30 percent and the remaining 10 percent owned by Atech.

While continuing to enhance its business in the east of China, Bosch has been stretching into western inland regions.

Its subsidiary for packaging technology invested in a new manufacturing site in Chengdu last year, while in February its chassis control unit announced construction of a new plant in the western city.

In 2011 alone, Bosch China established more than 10 regional sales offices in the central and western cities including Changsha in Hunan and Wuhan in Hubei.

hantianyang@chinadaily.com.cn