BWI Group debuts at AUTO Components Shanghai 2010

SHANGHAI, CHINA: Organized by CCPIT Shanghai and the Society of Automotive Engineers of China, co-organized by Shanghai International Exhibition Co., Ltd. and IMAG - International Messe-und Ausstellungsdienst GmbH, AUTO Components Shanghai 2010 will be held at the Shanghai International Exhibition Center on June 21st-23rd, 2010.

Top Chinese automotive chassis components and system supplier BWI Group debuted here with a message to the industry: we have beaten the odds, strengthened our operations, and we are making headway in growing suspension and brakes sales as a world-class Chinese company.

In November 2009, BWI Group paid over 90 million US dollars for the suspension and brakes business line assets of Delphi Corp., which represented the largest overseas acquisition by any Chinese company in automotive parts business.

However, at the time, management of this global business and further expansion of its value was widely regarded as a big challenge, because many Chinese acquisitions overseas had failed miserably due to cultural and management conflicts, among other things.

"We have retained our management team and key technical talents. We have not lost any customer and, instead, we are bringing in new customers. We have been sorting out a big list of patents obtained through this purchase with an intent to better utilize them for product development, and we are ahead of schedule in meeting our 1st year performance targets," said Jianyi Fang, chairman and CEO of BWI Group.

BWI Group is headquartered in southwestern Beijing, with over a dozen product development centers and manufacturing plants throughout Europe, North America and Asia.

Addressing a news conference here at the Shanghai International Exhibition Center for the 4th Component Shanghai Expo, held June 21-23, Fang referred to BWI's inheritance of Delphi's technology in suspension and brake products as one key factor contributing to BWI's current performance.

He vowed to further develop the applications for the 1,000-plus patents, patent applications, trade secrets and records of invention obtained through the acquisition. That intellectual property, he added, has given BWI Group a leading position in the global automotive suspension and brake markets.

China is rapidly becoming the world's largest automotive market and the number one automotive manufacturing country in the world as well. However, industry insiders agree that Chinese OEMs still rely too much on imported parts and components, at least for quality parts and modules used in higher-end products.

Through the Delphi suspension and brake business purchase, BWI Group is now able to offer complete lines of controlled suspension systems, passive dampers and damper modules, foundation brake components such as disc brakes, drum brakes, vacuum boosters, master cylinders, brake corner modules, and controlled braking systems such as ABS and ESC, etc. BWI also makes ABS for motorcycles. One of the products which has been particularly well received is BWI's patented MagneRide (MR) controlled suspension system technology. BWI also produces controlled powertrain mounts which use MR technology.

In fact, the performance of the MR controlled suspension system is so amazingly good that one European journalist recently wrote about a BWI MR damper equipped Ferrari 458 Italia this way: "Everything is exceptional: vivacity, precision of suspension, balance of the chassis, ... Its magnetic suspension performs wonders... BWI is the Chinese company which has just bought the whole Delphi chassis division, who has developed all magnetic damping systems."

BWI's patented MR suspension products are now installed in Audi, Chevrolet Corvette, Cadillac, GMC, Holden special vehicles, Acura MDX and ZDX, and BWI patented MR powertrain mounts are used in Porsche. The list of customers for this premier technology keeps expanding, according to Charles Horne, BWI's Dayton, Ohio based planning manager.

While BWI is leveraging its knowledge in the controlled magnetic damping for more applications, the company also is beefing up its product development all around after years of limitations while the suspension and brakes business were under Delphi, which had bankruptcy related financial constraints.