(Yicai) Dec. 6 -- Sales of Chinese vehicle parts through transborder e-commerce platforms have surged this year, prompting many manufacturers to expand their overseas warehousing in a bid to secure more orders and prepare for potential tariff increases.

Chinese vendors have seen double-digit growth in auto parts sales on eBay this year, Pan Zhehu, a regional general manager for the site, told Yicai at Automechanika Shanghai 2024 yesterday. Growth will quicken next year, with the position of China-made products in the global market becoming ever more important, Pan added.

Automechanika Shanghai, the world's second-biggest auto parts expo after Automechanika Frankfurt, was held from Dec. 2 through yesterday.

A Chongqing-based car parts maker, which began to trial cross-border e-commerce in 2006, exports 90 percent of its products via platforms such as eBay, Vice General Manager Li Qiaozhi said. It entered the US market first, then expanded to Europe and later to Australia, with related overseas revenue reaching tens of millions of US dollars, Li noted.

“Before 2021, our exports doubled every year,” Li said. “This year’s growth has been about 20 percent, and we expect a 30 percent increase next year.”

Compared to the more mature US market, the European market has shown more noticeable growth this year. The average age of vehicles in Germany and the United Kingdom is more than 10 years, and the aftermarket is growing quickly there, boosting online purchases, eBay said in a report released at Automechanika Shanghai.

More Chinese firms are expanding warehousing abroad, mainly to attract more orders and brace for possible import tariff hikes. 

In the short term, parts makers are rushing bulk exports in anticipation of rising shipping costs next month, the head of such a company from Changzhou told Yicai. In the medium to long term, those with products readily available in local markets will be able to seize market share more quickly, the person noted.

March is generally the peak season for the overseas auto parts aftermarket, and so bearing in mind the shipping cycle and the time needed to prepare goods for market, Chinese manufacturers need to focus supply between this month and the days before the Chinese New Year at the end of next January.

The Changzhou-based parts maker used more third-party warehouses in the past, but it signed a deal for a large new warehouse in the eastern United States this year, with plans to set up new warehouses in the south of the country in the second half of next year, its chief said.

China is the only country able to export all categories of parts, surpassing Germany as the world's leading manufacturing superpower. Its shipments of auto part overseas will double and exceed USD100 billion in 2024, surging for the fifth straight year.

Editors: Shi Yi, Martin Kadiev