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Airbag Industry~Quo Vadis? The Industry's Structural Changes: Balancing Globalization, Economy and Technology
Technical Paper
2000-31-0004
Sector:
Event:
Airbag 2000
Language:
English
Abstract
The structural change at the OEMs has progressed quite
intensively producing similar effects in the branch of automotive
suppliers. In the Airbag Industry the consolidation process has
lost its dynamic and is now focusing on system integration.
After the booming phase car production is expected to stagnate
on a high level. The formerly strong pace of growth out of West
Europe will transfer to Asia and Latin America.
Through an intensely degrading number of car platforms the
average platform volume is continuously increasing and consequently
related order volumes and also order risk is affected.
On a mid-term base OEM profit is expected to decrease and
probably price pressure on airbag suppliers will become higher
again.
Vertical integration for special technology is fundamental for
airbag system suppliers to gain the necessary profit level for
pre-development work expected by OEMs. On a long-term aspect car
mega-modules are expected to initiate further consolidation on Tier
1/0.5 level.
Market penetration for front bags has nearly reached its peak in
Europe, whereas for side bags a remarkable potential till 2006/07
is forecasted unfortunately coupled with decreasing margins. The
slope of growth and product innovation through conventional
technologies will diminish by approximately 2008 resulting in the
direct link of the Airbag Industry to the demand cycle of the
automobile industry.
Further growth potential is forecasted in the interaction and
integration with active vehicle safety. Through this the number of
electronic components and functions will increase dramatically,
consequently requesting different core competencies compared with
the ones actually available in the Airbag Industry. It gets even
more difficult looking at today's drastically change structure
of resources showing the need for long-term and early global
acting.
To sum it up on a mid-term scale the outlook is still
optimistic, but for long-term aspects an acceptable growth with
sufficient profit is only expected in the mechanically and
electronically integration in car mega-modules resulting in
changing market position of the Airbag Industry with regard to the
supply chain.