Company Special: HELLA's commitment to China

Rolf Breidenbach, CEO of auto parts supplier HELLA KGaA, visited China for the second time this year. He attached the great importance to one of the world's biggest automotive markets.

Breidenbach went to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on April 9. He profoundly discussed the development of China's automotive industry and HELLA's contribution to the automotive market according to the statement on the ministry's website. A further meeting with the ministry will follow soon.

Investments in China

HELLA affirmed the strong commitment to China in the light of the investment plan to China they made until 2020. Three lighting plants, which will mainly serve major local automakers FAW, BAIC, SAIC and more local Chinese brands, are under construction, with the extension of some R&D centers in China.

The current investments in Beijing, Jiaxing and Chengdu are showing a preliminary growth within all over China.

Green energy

Rising challenges concerning the reduction of fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions require effective solutions.

According to Breidenbach, HELLA wants to be the leader in green energy in the future. He explained that the new generation of vehicles will be equipped with latest technology to achieve the carbon dioxide emission targets in 2015 that released just recently by the MIIT.

LED car light will be regarded as the new trend, as well as the electronic systems made in China. They both have had already the capacity of reducing the fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions by 10 percent.

With its product portfolio, HELLA has already made great contributions to a better environment. However, the company is still looking for a further way to build a cleaner, more ecological world.

As a world-renowned automotive supplier for car lighting and electronics, HELLA has recently extended their business to industrial lighting by the abundant experience in LED car light, providing road lighting and office lighting.

Breidenbach pointed out that a panel has been organized and the production has been on the go at HELLA.

Besides the remarkable energy saving it brings, the new LED environmental lighting sources will lead to a completely brand new prospect for design industry.

The MIIT and HELLA agreed to strengthen their cooperation, thus building an industrial criteria in China.

Setting up new R&D centers in Beijing, Shanghai, Changchun, Nanjing and Xiamen is just the first step. HELLA has set the goal of developing a strong foundation of independent, localized R&D talent to support the evolving demands of the market.

Local employment

The increasing market and high investments of HELLA require bringing more local employees onboard.

In 2012 alone, HELLA hired 2,000 employees in China and plans to continue adding significant numbers of staff until 2020.

The company is cooperating with universities in Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing and Changchun, offering scholarships to qualified students, in order to get a head start recruiting its next generation of leaders.

HELLA is a global, independent, family-owned company with more than 28,000 employees in 70 cities in more than 30 countries.

With more than 4,800 people working in R&D, HELLA is one of the most important innovation pioneers in the market, which makes it one of the top 40 automotive suppliers in the world and one of the 100 largest German industrial companies.

qianchen@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 04/22/2013 page12)