New plants in the US and China, high demand for car driveline and chassis technology and a healthy upswing in commercial vehicles in
the second half of the year have boosted the business of ZF Friedrichshafen AG. The technology company is set to close 2013 with a 10 per cent increase in sales to an anticipated €17 billion.
“With this pleasing growth rate, we have once again outstripped the average in the industry and further strengthened our position among the world’s leading automotive suppliers,” said ZF CEO Dr. Stefan Sommer at the annual press conference in Stuttgart.
He noted that particularly in North America, the most important market after Europe, ZF had taken a major step forward with the opening of its new plant in Gray Court in the US in July last. In recent years, the company has invested almost half a billion euros in the establishment and expansion of the production location for 8- and 9-speed automatic transmissions.
A large part of the investments totalling more than €1 billion went to Asia-Pacific in 2013. “With the new production location for passenger car axle systems in Beijing and the expansion of passenger car axle assembly in Shenyang, we have also increased our presence in China,” explained Sommer.
Furthermore, passenger car axle systems have also been produced in Malaysia since November, a first for ZF.
“In the coming years,” said Dr. Sommer, “we want to further exploit the market opportunities in these emerging economies in the Asia-Pacific region and successively expand our capacities there.”
He said that was why ZF planned to invest more than €1 billion per year over the next few years. “That is a huge challenge for us, but if we want to be globally successful and supply our customers locally, there is no other way,” he added.
The growth in sales went hand-in-hand with the creation of new jobs: In 2013, ZF hired some 5,200 new employees worldwide, 2,100 of them in Germany. This is set to continue to a lesser extent next year. More than 2,000 new jobs are expected, of which one quarter will be created in Germany. However, sales are anticipated to rise again in 2014 by around 10 per cent, once more clearly ahead of the industry average.
Dr. Sommer further explained that the strong growth in North America and Asia-Pacific would also impact on the long-term corporate strategy: “The sales share of North and South America as well as Asia-Pacific will increase from 40 per cent today to more than 50 per cent in 2025. By this time, company sales should have reached around €40 billion”.
The important cornerstones of the long-term strategy included boosting electronics and lightweight construction expertise, innovation as well as cost leadership, and a globally even more attractive employer brand. “We can only meet these objectives with motivated employees, and we need them in Friedrichshafen just as much as in Gray Court, Beijing or Singapore”, he added.
ZF is a global leader in driveline and chassis technology with 121 production companies in 26 countries. In 2013, the group will presumably achieve a sales figure of €17 billion with approximately 73,600 employees. In order to continue to be successful with innovative products, the company annually invests about five per cent of its sales (2013: around €840 million) in research and development.