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"We are indeed negotiating with Qijiang Gear Transmission Co., Ltd (QJGT),but no further information to be revealed by now." Haerter said, the CEO of ZF Friedrichshafen (Germany) in the interview.
ZF is planning to invest on a transmission corporation worthy 5 billion Yuan with QJGT together. Both parties will possibly sign the agreement before July and this joint venture will offer transmission products for domestic commercial vehicles.
As one of the biggest auto parts suppliers in the world, ZF is relieving from the financial crisis. On 9 June, ZF announced to cooperate with Chrysler and invested 300 million USD on the foundation of 8-speed transmission factory in North America.
Haerter showed that," In 2010, we are going to invest 50 million Euros, year-on-year growth of 47% in China." It includes the joint project with QJGT and the designed production capacity is 300,000 units for this project.
In 2009, ZF realized the sales income of 9.37 billion Euros and it drops 25% compared with that over the same period in 2008. Haerter had to reduce various spending by a large margin. He admitted that it was the hardest year in his career in 2009, which has joined ZF in 1973.
The sales income from China is 970 million Euros, accounting for about 10% of the total income, which makes China the second market for ZF, apart from Germany. Haerter said that the sales income from China would go up to 15% in the future. On 8 June, the headquarters of Asia Pacific Region of ZF formally moved to Songjiang,Shanghai. It is just the great expectation of the market in China that makes ZF to do so.