Bosch says sales in China increased 19% last year to EUR11.1bn (US$12.6bn), despite what it describes as a “less dynamic market environment.”
Sales in China almost doubled as a result of the full acquisition of the former 50:50 joint ventures BSH Hausgeräte and Robert Bosch Automotive Steering. This makes the country the second-largest market for the Bosch Group after Germany. During the past three years, China’s share of total Bosch Group sales has increased from 9% to 16%
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Bosch expects a positive performance in China also for 2016 and sees especially strong potential in the area of connectivity.
“The Chinese market continues to offer us a wide range of business opportunities,” said Bosch Asia Pacific board member, Peter Tyroller.
“The market for the internet of things is also growing rapidly in China.”
Tyroller also highlighted the Internet Plus initiative for integrating the tool into traditional industries, a major element of the Chinese government’s 13th Five-Year Plan, which aims to make China a greener and more sustainable economy.
“Over the coming years, we expect China to see strong growth in demand for quality products as well as for connected solutions and services,” added Tyroller.
Bosch has been present in China since 1909 and says it is committed to localisation. “Our ‘local for local’ strategy in China is paying off, as we can see from our sustained business success in the country.
“We invested more than EUR750m in China in 2015 and we are budgeting a similar sum for 2016.”
Bosch now employs 55,000 staff in China – 2,000 more than one year ago. This makes the company’s headcount in China the largest outside Germany.
