中國汽車製造業放眼海外擴張

Over the coming weeks, a few Volvo cars will begin a historic journey from southwestern China to the US. The Swedish company’s S60L sedans will be transported by truck to Shanghai’s port, loaded on to car carriers for shipment across the Pacific, and finally rolled off in Los Angeles.

在接下來的幾周時間，一批沃爾沃(Volvo)汽車將從中國西南部運往美國，展開一段歷史性旅程。這家瑞典公司的S60L轎車將先用卡車運到上海港口，再裝載到汽車運輸船上橫跨太平洋，最終在洛杉磯卸載。

Manufactured at Volvo’s new plant in Chengdu, the first made-in-China passenger cars purpose-built for export to the US are a reminder of how far the country — like Japan and South Korea — has come in global manufacturing.

這批汽車產自沃爾沃的成都新工廠，是首批中國製造的專爲出口美國訂製的乘用車，它們提醒了我們中國（就像日本和韓國）在全球製造業已走出了多遠。

China has evolved from a supplier of low-cost, labour-intensive products to an exporter of what Ralf Speth, chief executive of Jaguar Land Rover, calls “the most complex consumer product on earth”.

中國已經從低成本、勞動密集型產品供應國，發展成施韋德(Ralf Speth)所稱的“地球上最複雜消費產品”的出口國。施韋德是捷豹路虎(Jaguar Land Rover)首席執行官。

“China will probably follow the path we have seen with Japan and Korea but will do it faster,” Håkan Samuelsson, Volvo’s chief executive, said at this week’s Auto Shanghai, one of China’s two annual premier car shows. “I would say 2020 is realistic to see Chinese cars on the global market.”

沃爾沃首席執行官霍坎•薩穆埃爾鬆(Håkan Samuelsson)在本週開幕的上海國際車展上表示：“中國很可能將踏上我們見過的日本和韓國的發展道路，但是會發展得更快。我想2020年中國汽車出現在全球市場上是現實的。”上海國際車展是中國兩大年度車展之一。

Unlike Volvo, a unit of Chinese carmaker Geely, most multinational car executives are reluctant to talk about China as a possible future export platform for their companies.

與隸屬中國車企吉利(Geely)的沃爾沃不同，多數跨國車企高管都不願談論以中國作爲其公司可能的未來出口平臺。

That is in part because they do not want to compete against sister units overseas and would also have to share their export earnings with their Chinese joint venture partners. Chinese government rules cap foreign ownership of automotive factories at 50 per cent.

有部分是因爲他們不想與海外兄弟公司競爭，另外他們還得與中方合資夥伴分享出口收入。中國政府規定汽車企業外資持股上限爲50%。

But with huge capacity investments in China coming on line just as annual economic growth falls to a “new normal” of below 7 per cent, the question about whether that capacity should be used for exports is not going away.

但中國經濟年增長正滑向低於7%的“新常態”，即將在中國投資的巨大產能就產生了一個揮之不去的問題：這一產能是否應該用於出口？

Jacques Daniel, head of Renault’s China business, says his overseas colleagues raise the export issue frequently. “The question is often asked by our colleagues at Renault because they are afraid we are going to export,” Mr Daniel says. “But with such a big market here, all our energy should be focused on China.”

雷諾汽車(Renault)中國業務負責人達業(Jacques Daniel)表示，他的海外同僚常常提到出口問題，他說：“雷諾的同事之所以會經常問這一問題，是因爲他們擔心我們要出口。但這兒有這麼大市場，我們所有的精力都該集中在中國。”

Renault is a late-comer to China, the world’s largest car market with more than 20m units sold last year. The French company will not open its first factory in the country until early 2016. The joint venture with Dongfeng Motor in Wuhan will have an initial capacity of just 150,000 units.

中國去年汽車銷量超過2000萬輛，是全球最大汽車市場。雷諾在中國市場是個後來者，這家法國公司到2016年初纔會在中國開第一家工廠。雷諾與東風汽車(Dongfeng Motor)在武漢的合資公司初始產能將僅爲15萬輛。

GM and Volkswagen, the top two automakers in China, will have a combined manufacturing capacity of almost 10m units in their most important market by 2018. GM is in the midst of a five-year $14bn China investment drive that will increase capacity 25 per cent this year alone. Both companies believe that even such huge capacity increases can be absorbed by China alone.

通用汽車(GM)和大衆汽車(Volkswagen)在中國是最大的兩家汽車製造商，到2018年，在中國這個最重要的市場上，兩家公司的總產能將達到近1000萬輛。通用汽車對華投資140億美元的5年計劃正在進行中，僅今年其產能就將提高25%。這兩家公司都認爲即使產能增加如此巨大，單靠中國市場就能吸收。

“We want to build where we sell,” Mary Barra, GM’s chief executive, said at an Auto Shanghai briefing. “It’s still important to make sure we have the capacity for the domestic market.”

通用汽車首席執行官瑪麗•巴拉(Mary Barra)在上海國際車展的發佈會上表示：“我們希望在哪兒銷售，就在哪兒建造產能。確保我們的產能滿足中國市場仍然重要。”