In recent years, the rapid development of China's automobile industry has stimulated the market demand for auto parts. The filter industry is an example. It is predicted that the total market demand for automotive filters in China will increase from 0.39 billion sets in 2006 to 0.57 billion sets in 2010 and 1.16 billion sets in 2020.

Independent brand market share is still dominant

Ge Deyi, secretary-general of the Automotive Filter Committee of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, said that there are more than 1000 domestic filter companies, but most of them are small enterprises. Among them, there are many small family workshops and major companies in the industry (included in the national Statistics) have more than 30.

The filter market is highly competitive, and there is no monopoly or near-monopoly super-large enterprise in the industry. In general, the market share of independent brand filters still has advantages. Independent brand companies such as Bengbu Jinwei, Ruian Xinghao, and Pingyuan have a larger market share.

With the increase in production capacity, the products of independent brand filter companies not only meet the needs of domestic OEMs and after-sales service markets, but also a considerable number of filters are exported to Europe, North America, the Middle East and Southeast Asia. Wang Quanfu, chief engineer of Bengbu Jinwei Filter Co., Ltd., said that the export volume of Bengbu filters reached more than 5000 million in 2007.

The quality of independent brand filters has been greatly improved, but it is undeniable that the advantage lies in the cost performance. Ge Deyi said that the current price competition between independent brand filters is still very fierce.

Foreign joint venture brands seize the high-end market

Although from the perspective of market share, independent brand filter companies have certain advantages, multinational companies occupy an important market position and almost monopolize the supporting market of high-end model filters. At present, Mann Hummel, Mahler, Sogfi, Freika, Donaldson, Denso and other multinational filter companies have invested and built factories in China. Ge Deyi said that there are more than 10 domestic joint venture filter companies and nearly 10 wholly foreign-owned filter companies.

Competition between these foreign brands is equally fierce. Man Hummel from Europe entered China as early as 1996 and has now established two joint ventures in Shanghai and Changchun. Li Ya Zao, marketing manager of Shanghai Man Hummel Filter Co., Ltd., said that as the world's professional filter manufacturer, Man Hummel has been taking the high-end route in China.

More competitive aftermarket

The filter is a vulnerable part of the car and needs to be replaced regularly. As a result, sales of aftermarket filters are very large.

It is understood that the number of filter companies competing for the aftermarket is far more than the supporting market, and most of the filter companies that focus on the supporting market have a certain share in the auto parts market. Ge Deyi said that in the filter after-sales market, brand concentration is very low, and the market share of the top 5 filter companies is only 15%; while in the supporting market, the market share of the top 5 filter companies is 40%.