The 100 largest automotive suppliers worldwide fared better in 2021 than in 2020, despite the ongoing corona crisis, supply chain chaos and increasing pressure to transform. This is the result of a current evaluation by the consulting firm Berylls Strategy Advisors. Accordingly, the turnover of the companies last year increased by more than 13 percent to 899 billion euros. They are thus approaching their record level from the pre-Corona year 2019, when sales were two percent higher. With an average return of 6.3 percent, the business of the largest suppliers was also significantly more profitable again in 2021 (2020: 2.6 percent). The consultants attribute this not least to large-scale savings programs at companies.
Among the top five in the consulting firm’s ranking, which is based on the company’s turnover, are Bosch (1st), Continental (3rd) and ZF Friedrichshafen (4th) three German supplier groups. The most important climber last year was CATL. The Chinese battery specialist made up 24 places compared to 2020 and came in tenth with sales of a good 18.1 billion euros. “It is hardly surprising that a battery producer would move up into the top ten,” says Berylls partner Alexander Timmer. “Even in the difficult year 2021, the demand for rechargeable batteries was so great that CATL was one of the big winners as a logical consequence.”
With Weichai Power rangers the next supplier out China right in twelfth place. Overall, there are now even nine Chinese companies among the hundred largest suppliers. And by no means only in the segment of new drive technologies and software – with Citic Dicastal, an alloy wheel manufacturer jumped 26 positions to rank 62.
Overall, the nine Chinese suppliers in the top 100 were able to increase their sales by 40 percent in 2021 compared to the previous year. They benefited greatly from Chinese industrial policy, which on the one hand strengthens the domestic market, but on the other hand also fuels expansion into leading international markets. As a result, the weights are shifting on the world market.
Since 2018, Chinese suppliers have been able to increase their share from 5 to 9 percent. According to Berylls, German and Japanese competitors are suffering the most. In 2018, Japanese suppliers still accounted for 27 percent of the total sales of the hundred largest companies, recently it was only 24 percent. In the case of German corporations, the proportion fell from 23 to 21 percent.
The Berylls prognosis should be warning enough for the top dogs: “If the Chinese consistently continue their success story, they will take the leading role in the global supplier ranking in 2028 and push the German competition out of the top group,” warn the consultants.