Invest KOREA

KOTRA and Volkswagen's Central and Eastern Europe purchasing office (VW CEE) and start Global Partnering project
KOTRA holds consultations with VW CEE, which purchases EUR 166.5 billion worth of auto parts per year, opening up opportunities for suppliers.

Korea's automotive parts SMEs in Central and Eastern Europe take the first steps in diversifying their local delivery sites starting with Volkswagen.

On April 12 (local time) in Bratislava, Slovakia, the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA; President and CEO Kwon Pyung-oh) and Volkswagen Central and Eastern Europe (VW CEE) announced they will hold the "Global Partnering VW CEE Korean Suppliers' Day 2018" to expand business opportunities for Korean auto parts SMEs in the region.

VW CEE manages partners in 20 countries to determine the delivery of parts to 17 Volkswagen factories in Central and Eastern Europe. In 2016 alone, Volkswagen purchased EUR 166.5 billion worth of auto parts. Considering that 65% of the transactions amounting to EUR 108.2 billion (KRW 143 trillion) took part in Europe, there are vast opportunities for local suppliers.

Currently, there are 50 Korean auto parts companies in the Visegrád Group (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia), and 19 companies of various fields took part in this year's meetings, ranging from interior parts, stamping, electrical parts and more. From VW CEE, purchasing representatives from different divisions attended. The commonly traditional VW CEE took interest in the Korean companies leading the market for electric parts, batteries and other new technologies in the midst of the changing automotive industry led by electric and autonomous vehicles. Volkswagen revealed plans to increase local sourcing to 80% by 2020, and that it is actively looking for new partners.

VW CEE representative Nagy Barnar stated, "At a point of a major paradigm shift in the automotive industry led by the switch to electric vehicles, Korean auto parts companies need to gain an edge with new technologies and cost competitiveness." Barnar added, "I had the chance to meet local Korean automotive parts companies for the first time through this event and I have great expectations for them."

Kim Yoon-tae, director of KOTRA's regional headquarters in Europe, said, "This event will be a great opportunity for the Korean SMEs in Europe to grow into global companies by diversifying their vendors." Kim went on to say, "Going forward, we will continue to explore opportunities for cooperation with leading European companies on behalf of Korean SMEs making headway in global markets."

Source : Invest Korea (2018.04.14)