JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #117 - November/December 2017 - 23

strategy BUSINESS

China's road to innovation: the German way
Chinese companies recently showed interest in the German composite industry, mainly through
the ac uisition of com anies with s ecific technologies or
collaborations with universities
These various deals and agreements are likely to intensify in the near future as the Chinese
government is encouraging technological investments intended to upgrade local industries.

A

ccording
to
the
Chinese five-year Plan
2016-2020, innovation
is the country's first development driver. The Chinese
Government intends to raise
its research spending to 2.5%
of GDP, i.e. 0.4% more than
during the previous five-year
Plan (2011-2015), and to
generate 60% of growth
through the resulting patents
and technologies. The environment will also benefit from
such an innovation as, within
5 years, water consumption
will be reduced by 25%, energy consumption by 15% and
CO2 emissions by 18%.
One of the priorities of the
five-year Plan is to upgrade
Chinese industrial sectors.
China just announced drastic
new restrictions for the investments of Chinese companies
abroad, banning them from
several industries such as
sports clubs, hotels, cinemas,
real estate and entertainment.
The composite industry is not
black-listed, and especially
not the leading German one,
as German composite ma-

terials production volume
increased by 30% to 212 kt
between 2010 and 2015, and
its market share in the EU
reached 20%, according to
Composites Germany.
Thus, the Chinese conglomerate Fosun (which acquired
Club Med in 2015), and
its joint venture Nanjing
Nangang Iron & Steel
United (Nanjing Nangang)
announced in August 2017
the acquisition of a majority
stake in Koller Beteiligungs
GmbH (Koller), a German
lightweight
automotive
specialist. It is the first overseas investment for Nanjing
Nangang and the first overseas industrial investment in
the automotive industry for
Fosun.
Koller produces injection
moulding composite parts
and pressing tools, including
PUR-honeycomb sandwich
panels for major European
automotive companies such
as Volkswagen, Audi, BMW,
Mercedes and Land Rover.
With support from its new
major shareholder, Koller
said it will "both strengthen
its market position in Europe
and explore new production
locations and expansion opportunities in China."

Fosun
Chairman
Guo
Guangchang said: "We are
pleased with this investment
in Koller, a world leading provider of lightweight innovative
solutions for the automotive
industry. We highly respect
Koller's "spirit of craftsmanship", especially in providing
solutions to reduce emissions
and energy consumption.
Environmental
protection
and energy savings are key
global initiatives, especially in
China. Lightweight technology
could effectively reduce energy
consumption and promote sustainable development. I believe
there will be greater demand for
high-quality, innovative lightweight products and solutions
and we look forward to working

closely with the Koller Group in
bringing their products to these
markets."

Design solutions for
Chinese OEMs
The acquisition of technologies can also be achieved
through R&D collaborations,
as was the case for the
Kangdexin group (KDX) in
2015. The privately-owned,
Shenzhen-listed group has
five
business
segments:
Laminating Film Materials,
Photoelectric
Materials,
Carbon Fibre, New Smart
Display and Internet Applications. The company recently
formed a partnership with the
University of Cambridge and
is conducting R&D on the

The acquisition of a majority stake in Koller Beteiligungs GmbH is Fosun's first
overseas investment in the industrial sector

N°117 November - December 2017

/ jec composites magazine

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #117 - November/December 2017
