Non-Genuine Parts : The Facts
There is currently a great deal of debate concerning non-genuine parts in the air brake industry, particularly regarding those parts manufactured in China. Statements have been made and many articles have been written recently, but the only fact to emerge from these has been how little is really known about this subject here in the UK.
In the UK, people first became aware of non-genuine parts well over ten years ago, and it is fair to say that the quality of the parts in the early days was questionable. Many people had bad experiences because of the general poor standard of manufacture, and as a result decided not to use such parts again. The main source of the parts at that time was Turkey, with China also producing small quantities. The root cause of the quality problems was the multitude of small manufacturers entering the market, without the necessary technical expertise or control procedures to ensure a product of the highest quality. As is the nature of such things, it did not take long for the marketplace to realise that, whilst many manufacturers were unwilling or unable to deal with the issue of poor quality parts, certain manufacturers were working extremely hard to overcome these quality problems by recruiting staff with the necessary technical expertise or quality control experience. In recent years, these companies have emerged at the forefront of this sector of the commercial vehicle aftermarket. Additionally, the main emphasis of production has now switched geographically, and it is China, rather than Turkey, which is the main source of non-genuine parts today. It is true that there are still many small manufacturers producing poor quality air brake parts, and these companies will inevitably continue to give the non-genuine parts market a bad name. However, those select few companies that made the important decision several years ago to improve the quality of their parts are now seeing that decision pay significant dividends, with growing demand on a global scale for high quality parts at extremely competitive prices.
As a relative newcomer to the commercial vehicle aftermarket, New World Air Brake were keen to align ourselves with the way the market was moving, and the company has quickly gained a reputation for providing a high quality of service, supplying both genuine and non- genuine air brake equipment to the commercial motor factor trade at the most competitive prices. Naturally, the pre-requisite for establishing such a reputation was to select only those suppliers whose outlook mirrored our own, where quality and service was of the utmost importance. With this in mind, New World entered into an agency agreement at the beginning of 2005 with SORL Autoparts Inc. With a turnover of $16.4 million in the third quarter of 2005, SORL are a major player in the global air brake market. They lead the Chinese domestic market in heavy duty vehicle air brake, supplying 42 vehicle manufacturers as original equipment. They have 30 independent sales offices which sell SORL product exclusively to more than 800 distributors in China. SORL's partners, the Ruili Group (a related company with common directors to SORL), deal with the company's international sales through two major distribution centres in Australia and the United Arab Emirates. The company exports to more than 30 major countries worldwide, including the USA & Canada, most of the larger South American markets, including Brazil & Argentina, most of Europe, including Germany, Italy, Spain, Russia & the UK, not to mention the African and Australasian continents. With 2.6 million units produced in 2004 alone, and ISO9001, QS9000 and VDA6.1 quality certifications, SORL are clearly a major manufacturing force, and as such, they strive for excellence throughout their organisation. SORL already own one patent for an automotive clutch empower device, and they continue to invest in the development of new technology, including electronic braking, adding many new products each year to their existing ranges. The company plans to apply for a NASDAQ national market listing in the near future.
New World are extremely proud to be associated with a company of such quality and ambition, and we have little doubt that our relationship with SORL will benefit not only them and us, but also our customer base here in the UK.
It is clear that the established OE manufacturers, such as Wabco, are taking the growth of the Chinese economy very seriously. So much so that they are already utilising Chinese manufacturers to produce some of their parts ! This is not a new practice, however. These OE manufacturers have always used the labour of poorer countries all over the world to produce their parts as cheaply as possible, without sacrificing quality. It is clearly good business practice to help maximise profits in this way. We do not advocate that our customers refuse to use such parts, purely because they are not produced in what are generally accepted to be the more technologically-advanced countries, such as Germany or the UK. Equally, we would not expect the OE manufacturers to express unsubstantiated doubts regarding the quality of the non-genuine parts we sell to our customers. We are certain that if we did sell parts of sub-standard quality, word would have spread across the UK long before now, and we would be out of business pretty quickly. What we would ask all our customers to do is to ignore what they may have heard, and to form their own opinion as to the quality of these parts, using their own eyes and experience. It is a fact that those of our customers who have kept an open mind on this subject have invariably been pleasantly surprised by the quality and the price of these non-genuine parts, and all of them have been keen to supply their own customers with these parts subsequently.
