SOMICK: Standing Firm at 30, Leading New Industry Trends

Established in 1994, SOMICK Auto Parts Co., Ltd., a joint venture among Shaoxing Second Auto Parts Factory, Japan's Shokawa Somick Co., Ltd., and Toyota Tsusho Corporation, officially started in Shaoxing, Zhejiang. This marked the beginning of a new chapter in Sino-foreign cooperation and the place where dreams set sail.

Over the past 30 years, SOMICK has not only witnessed the development and rise of China's automotive industry but has also kept pace with the times and resonated with the growth of China's automotive industry, composing a splendid movement—the market share is over 50%, with annual sales exceeding 3 billion yuan, and product sales grow at a rate of more than 10% annually.

"For 30 years, we have been unwavering in our specialized production of automotive steering tie rods, suspension arms, ball heads, stabilizer bars, and other assemblies. Our goal is to be refined and ultimate in this field," said Shen Baiqing, General Manager of SOMICK, in an interview with journalists. Building a world-class ball joint factory is a firm ideal and belief of SOMICK. In his view, to stand out in the niche market, products must be made to the extreme.

Over the past 30 years, SOMICK has grown from small to large, continuously developing, and currently produces more than 15 million sets of automotive steering tie rods, suspension arms, ball heads, stabilizer bars, and other assemblies annually. The company has invested in establishing a provincial-level high-tech enterprise research and development center and a provincial-level enterprise technology center, with the capability to develop in sync with the entire vehicle factory, becoming a supporting supplier for more than 100 whole vehicle companies such as FAW, SAIC, GAC, Dongfeng, Changan, BAIC, Chery, BYD, NIO, Li Auto, XPeng, and SERES, becoming a leader in the auto parts industry.

"As of May this year, SOMICK's production and sales have reached new heights, with a year-on-year increase of 28%, setting a new record again," said Zhu Hui Quan, the head of SOMICK's Product Development Department. As an important production base for the national automotive steering tie rod and suspension arm ball head assembly, SOMICK has always put quality first for many years, always at the forefront of product technology innovation, becoming a benchmark for leading quality and outstanding performance in the automotive parts industry. It is revealed that the market share of SOMICK products in the automotive market has exceeded 50%, in other words, at least 5 out of every 10 cars use parts produced by SOMICK.

Especially in the era of new energy vehicles, SOMICK has kept pace with the development of the new energy vehicle industry and achieved new breakthroughs. At present, more than 60% of the company's orders come from new energy vehicle companies, becoming a new growth point for SOMICK.

Strong technology, reliable products, and high-quality service have won SOMICK a good reputation and many honors. It is reported that since 2003, the company has won the national top 100 excellent suppliers of auto parts, Zhejiang Province's model collective unit, Zhejiang Province Quality Association Council director unit, Zhejiang Province patent demonstration enterprise, Shaoxing City's key backbone enterprise, and other honors year after year. It has been rated as an excellent supplier, quality excellent unit, core supplier, and other titles by many automotive companies over the years.

Looking back on the 30-year development process, SOMICK has fortunately caught up with a good era. First, it has caught up with the 30 years of leapfrog development of China's automotive industry. The production and sales of Chinese cars have increased from 1 million to 30 million, a 30-fold increase, providing a huge development space for SOMICK; second, it has closely cooperated with joint venture partners, breaking through advanced technologies one by one, putting the enterprise on a healthy and sustainable development fast track; third, the support and contribution of all employees of the enterprise. No matter how wonderful the outside world is, SOMICK has always been focused and never forgotten its original intention, keeping the enterprise vibrant.

SOMICK's management believes that no matter how the industry cycle changes, no matter how fierce the global competition is, SOMICK enterprises will work closely together, explore new models and paths together, and set a new benchmark for high-quality development.

Sub-market competition is not without opponents, but the competition is more intense. SOMICK has always believed that products are hard power, and only products with excellent quality can give the enterprise a voice. Especially since the "dual carbon" target was proposed, the automotive industry is facing more severe challenges, such as the lightweight of parts, which is the first problem to be faced.

Therefore, SOMICK clearly recognizes this and has taken the lead in the industry to develop and produce lightweight parts as a major measure for the high-quality development of the enterprise. It is reported that since 2018, SOMICK has developed more than 600 new products. Among them, the proportion of lightweight products in the total product development has been greatly increased, and many new products have passed the provincial and ministerial appraisal and obtained a number of invention patents and utility patents.

At present, SOMICK's independently developed lightweight products, including aluminum alloy front and rear suspension control arms and rod assemblies, have achieved serialization and marketization of chassis aluminum alloy parts, which can meet the matching needs of both fuel vehicles and new energy vehicles, contributing to the weight reduction of the whole vehicle. It is reported that the aluminum alloy products made by SOMICK are more than 30% lighter than traditional steel structure parts, and have formed an annual production capacity of tens of millions of sets of lightweight products.

If the product is hard power, then technology is the blood and wealth of the enterprise. SOMICK has always believed that technology is the strong support for the development of the enterprise, and innovation is the first driving force to lead the progress of the enterprise. Only by actively embracing the technological revolution and accelerating the iteration of technology and industrial upgrading can we stand invincible in the fierce competition of technology and win development opportunities.

Automotive steering tie rods, suspension arms, ball heads, and other assemblies are key parts of the car, with very high technical and safety requirements. To keep SOMICK ahead of the industry, it is necessary to strengthen technical strength. To this end, the company has invested 90 million yuan to create an enterprise technology center, and has invested more than 200 million yuan every year for technical transformation, greatly enhancing the competitiveness of the enterprise and cultivating a large number of compound talents who understand both technology and management.

In 2016, the two national technical standards drafted and revised by SOMICK, "Performance Requirements and Bench Test Methods for Independent Suspension Ball Head Assembly of Automobiles" and "Performance Requirements and Bench Test Methods for Steering Tie Rod Assembly of Automobiles", were officially implemented, marking that SOMICK's technical strength has been recognized by the relevant government departments.

Now, SOMICK adheres to the concept of "quality first, innovation leading", continuously develops new products, and accelerates the optimization of product structure and enterprise upgrading. Faced with a new round of market competition, SOMICK is determined not to relax, firmly grasps the power of technology, continues to take technological innovation as the core, further reduces production costs, and improves product quality.

The government work report this year once again proposed to vigorously promote the construction of modern industrial system and accelerate the development of new quality productive forces. As a part of the manufacturing industry, SOMICK is opening up a new track for development, enhancing new kinetic energy, and shaping new advantages with new quality productive forces.

The company's leadership believes that accelerating the transformation to intelligent modern manufacturing is an inevitable trend for the development of China's automotive parts industry. Introducing intelligent and automated equipment can greatly improve the level of product manufacturing. In this regard, SOMICK has been at the forefront of the industry.

SOMICK invests more than 200 million yuan in automated equipment every year, with an equipment automation rate of 80%, achieving 100% automated product testing. The industry-leading production equipment effectively improves the automation level of the factory.

SOMICK firmly grasps the major trend of digital development and invests a large amount of money in building a digital factory. With digital monitoring, command, and real-time management of the production process, SOMICK has a digital "brain" to carry out various production and manufacturing more efficiently and accurately. The company upgrades its production equipment comprehensively and continuously with an annual increase of 15% in technical transformation investment, injecting continuous competitiveness into the products.

In recent years, the company has actively implemented the national "