VDA pavilion with many suppliers at Seoul Motor Show
German automotive industry increases market shares in South Korea
Frankfurt am Main, 2 April 2009. "In the last four years the German automotive manufacturers have increased their sales on the South Korean market by 81 per cent. This means that we have grown nine times faster than the market as a whole, which expanded by only 9 per cent. More than 80 per cent of all premium vehicles sold in South Korea in 2008 are German brands," stressed Dr. Kunibert Schmidt, Managing Director of the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA). He was speaking in the run-up to the Seoul Motor Show, at which the VDA is again represented by a joint German pavilion. "South Korea is an exciting market with potential, for the German supply firms in particular," Dr. Schmidt said. The Seoul Motor Show, which is one of those included in the international calendar of leading auto shows by OICA (the international organization of motor vehicle manufacturers), will take place from 3 to 12 April 2009.
Asia is one of the most important growth regions for the automotive industry. Passenger car sales in South Korea are developing in a relatively stable fashion and in 2008 the market reached a volume of around 1 million vehicles. Traditionally this market has a low proportion of imported vehicles - currently almost 6 per cent - which is associated with non-tariff barriers to trade. Yet the German brands were still able to expand their market share owing to the excellent qualities of their premium vehicles. "One half of all imported vehicles sold in Korea last year were German group brands," Dr. Schmidt pointed out. Last year the German manufacturers sold a total of 29,700 vehicles. So over the last four years the German brands have increased their market share by more than half to the present level of 3 per cent.
South Korea is an important sales market for the German suppliers, too. In the last ten years they have doubled their exports to South Korea. Last year the value of exports of engines, parts and accessories from Germany came to over 650 million euro, which was slightly below the previous year's value, but in view of the worldwide economic crisis the drop (of 3.7 per cent) was relatively small. Dr. Schmidt: "On the difficult market in South Korea the German companies are concentrating on continuity and quality, and emphasizing their presence with a joint pavilion at the Seoul Motor Show with the official support of the German Federal Ministry of Economics." Last year the value of exports from Korean suppliers to Germany was 142 million euro (up by 20 per cent), which does not even equal one quarter of the value of exports of German suppliers to South Korea.
Exhibitors at the joint German pavilion:
Brose Fahrzeugteile GmbH & Co. KG
Formel D
C. Rob. Hammerstein GmbH & Co. KG
Hirschvogel Automotive Group
Media Globe International GmbH
MS Motor Service International
Röchling Automotive AG & Co. KG
Voss Automotive GmbH
Webasto AG
