How Can Parts Manufacturers Break Through In The Cold Market? Wuhu Bethel Seize The New Energy Market

Jing Kai District, Wuhu City, Anhui Province, is a national auto parts export base. Along the Taishan road in the open area, there are all kinds of auto parts companies.

No. 19 Taishan road was the destination of the twenty-first Century business reporter's visit. "Wuhu bethel" five golden characters posted on the left side of the gate, a two story white building is the main factory area. Without a dignified gate and a large office building, such a company is no longer common on the Taishan road where the auto parts manufacturers gather.

But in the field of subdivision automotive braking system, 603596.SH is bright enough. It is considered to be a rare vehicle braking system in China, which is developing high-quality suppliers independently. Especially in this year's auto industry downhill background, Bethel realized revenue of 1 billion 310 million yuan in the first half of the year, down 0.06% from the same period last year, and realized a net profit of 191 million yuan, an increase of 27.05% over the same period last year.

"From the absolute point of view, we still position ourselves as a growing small and medium-sized enterprise." Recently, Yuan Yongbin, chairman and general manager of Bethel, Wuhu, said in an exclusive interview with the economic news reporters in twenty-first Century. "I hope that through 10 years of hard work, I will enter the top 100 auto parts companies in the world."

Seize the new energy vehicle market

In recent two years, "car market cold winter" has become one of the highest vocabularies in the industry. The automobile industry has entered a period of adjustment after 20 years of rapid development.

In the first half of 2019, according to the Ministry of industry and information technology, the sales and sales of automobiles were 12 million 132 thousand and 12 million 323 thousand respectively, down 13.7% and 12.4% respectively from the same period last year.

As a whole vehicle upstream, the pressure of parts enterprises can be imagined. However, in a downturn, Wuhu Bethel realized the growth trend of net profit to its mother.

Turning to the reasons, Yuan Yongbin said that the main new projects are being put into operation one after another. "Our share of the market is not very large, and the correlation with the macro index is not strong. In terms of the company itself, I feel that the market is improving because the demand for labor is growing compared with last year.

Half year report shows that the new energy vehicle projects occupy almost half of the new projects. In the first half of this year, the company was developing 120 projects, of which 45 were new energy projects, involving 58 new models, 21 of which were new energy vehicles, and 39 of the company's commissioning projects, of which 16 were new energy projects, involving 19 vehicles, of which 9 were new energy vehicles.

In the field of new energy, Bethel has a key technology product -- "dual control electronic parking brake system" (dual control EPB). The electromechanical fluid integrated product is fully developed by the company. It aims to enhance the safety and reliability of new energy vehicles and reduce vehicle procurement costs.

"New energy vehicles are different from traditional cars. They should be equipped with electric control devices, so that they can still keep the cars intact when the parking system fails. We have made the electronic control double, and the components of the electronic control unit fail. The system can still meet the parking requirement of the regulation, and the controller cost is far lower than the P locking system price. " Yuan Yongbin explained to reporters.

According to its introduction, the company's dual control EPB is still in its infancy. At present, there are 10 projects, and some of them have been produced by Jiangling, Jianghuai and Chery.

The market also has high hopes for Bethel's EPB products. China Merchants Securities research report pointed out that in the future, in the domestic EPB market, Bethel will mainly compete with the international brands such as ZF, Tianhe automobile group and Germany continental group to promote the localization of imported products.

Yuan Yongbin said, "the leading technology will be manifested in the competitiveness of business and gradually expand the scale of production. In the future, with the increment of dual controlled EPB products, customers will also have a price reduction request. We will maintain profits through continuous improvement of management, efficiency and cost reduction. "

Make good use of capital market

Bethel, founded in 2004, has been ploughing for 15 years in the field of automotive braking systems, but it is still a "new man" for the capital market.

In April 27, 2018, Bethel landed on the A stock exchange board, founder Yuan Yongbin holding 20.3%, as the actual controller, Chery group's Chery technology shareholding 16.3% is the second largest shareholder.

The Chery gene of Bethel has been one of the focuses of the market. Today, Chery is still one of the important customers of the company.

To sort out the development of Bethel, Chery is an inevitable role. The reason why Yuan Yongbin, who worked in the United States, returned to China to start his own business is Chery's good offices. On the day of Bethel's listing, Chery motor chairman Yin Tongyue and Chery holding general manager Zhou Biren arrived at the platform.

Yuan Yongbin did not shy away from the association with Chery. He admitted that he chose to set up Bethel in Wuhu, mainly to close to Chery, so as to narrow the supply and reaction radius. So far, Bethel has built 9 factories in Chongqing, Hebei, Zhejiang and Cixi to better serve customers.

When it comes to listing, Yuan Yongbin, who has a technical background, has no "obsession". He told the twenty-first Century economic news reporter, "this is a natural thing". "Enterprises should enhance their popularity, expand their scale and introduce external capital to pursue returns."

After the listing, Yuan Yongbin clearly felt that the company's recognition was higher than before. "Inside and outside the industry, our business status and profitability have been proved to some extent."

Recalling the experience of Bethel's listing, there were also interludes in the middle. Compared with A's stock board, which has billions of revenue and billions of revenue, Bethel sprinted to the motherboard for less than 3 billion of its revenue.

Yuan Yongbin told reporters, "some people suggested that we should go to the small and medium-sized boards, but I still prefer the motherboard, and this group of A shares is the most powerful group of leading enterprises. Taking into account the advantages of the Shanghai Stock Exchange's geographical location, after continuous communication, it finally decided to go public on the main board of the Shanghai Stock Exchange. "

From the investment projects of Bethel, the main purpose is to expand production capacity and raise net capital of 562 million, which is used for four main related construction projects.

Taking advantage of the first round of fund-raising funds to complete the construction of investment and investment projects, Bethel is also thinking about how to make better use of the capital market.

"Investment merger and acquisition is being done, and it will be treated with caution. It will not blindly buy for scale. We plan mainly on the main business development and invest in related targets in the automotive industry. Yuan Yongbin said.

In addition, Yuan Yongbin indicated that it would increase liquidity through stock repurchase; meanwhile, in order to retain talent, equity incentive would be used to improve the interest distribution mechanism. "At present, the equity incentive policy is being studied, but because of some institutional constraints, it has not yet landed, and it is looking forward to a more market-oriented policy."