After 20 years’ supplying domestic automakers with rubber and metal parts used to control noise and vibration, a Chinese company will this year begin selling parts directly to Volkswagen overseas.
Zhejiang Luoshi Industrial Development Co., known as Luo’s Enterprise, will supply strut mounts for the Volkswagen Jetta and Magotan in VW plants in Germany and Brazil.
Luo’s Enterprise expects to begin supplying in the second half of 2008. But the order will be modest.
"In the future we hope to get a bigger order," says Sharon Ye, a senior company executive.
Three years of negotiations and audits were needed to win the business.
"The most important step if you want to be a [global] supplier is to have certain standards of quality management and engineering systems," says Ye. "There are lots of audits."
Says Luo Qingliang, one of the company’s three owners: "All the tests and materials need to be according to German standards."
For eight years, Luo’s Enterprise has been a tier two supplier in North America, selling parts to ArvinMeritor Inc. and Federal Mogul Corp.
High quality can require importing certain raw materials. Luo says the company imports synthetic rubber from Japan, the Netherlands and North America. It also imports certain plastics from North America and Germany.
Luo’s Enterprise has 80 engineers working on chemical formulas, tooling and chemical and physical tests.
In 1987, the three Luo brothers -- Luo Lian Ming, Luo Qing Liang an d Luo Qing Wen -- started the business with 1,500 yuan ($206).
Today the company has four plants with a total area of 46,000 square meters. And in 2008 the company expects to have sales of 300 million yuan ($41 million).
-
-
-
-
-
-
