THE TOP 100 LARGEST
AUTOMOTIVE SUPPLIERS WORLDWIDE
Berylls Strategy Advisors has been analyzing the development of the 100 largest automotive suppliers worldwide since 2011. During this period, the supplier industry has evolved significantly. The industry-shaping trends of the last 11 years have been:
The industry has increasingly consolidated and established players have expanded their position inorganically through acquisitions. Prominent examples of this are the takeovers of Wabco and TRW by ZF, the acquisition of Federal Mogul by Tenneco, and the integration of ZF Lenksysteme into the Bosch Group.
The spin-off of entire divisions and business units with the aim of separating the core business of days gone by, often in the powertrain sector, from technological growth areas. Continental and Vitesco, Johnson Controls and Adient or Aptive and Delphi Technologies are well-known examples of this.
Among the world’s largest suppliers, insolvencies have been rare. The only sad example is Japanese supplier Takata, which was taken over by Joyson Electronics after its insolvency in 2017
China has increasingly found interest in the automotive industry. In 2011, for example, Weichai Power was the only Chinese supplier among the world’s largest suppliers. In 2020, there were 11 Chinese suppliers in the meantime. The growth champion in 2021 was CATL with 184% revenue growth.
The barrier to entry to be among the top 100 suppliers has increased. While in 2011 EUR 1.6 billion in sales were required to rank 100, in 2021 sales of EUR 2.5 billion were required. A proud increase of +56%
Not unlike 2020, which was impacted by the special effect of Corona, 2021 was also massively affected by the ongoing pandemic, the chip crisis and the intensified situation on the raw materials markets. Nevertheless, many suppliers will again be able to report significant increases in sales and profits in fiscal 2021. Step by step, they are approaching the pre-pandemic level. German suppliers are also participating in this positive trend, albeit to a lesser extent than their Chinese competitors.
The contribution of Chinese suppliers to international sales development is rising steadily. In 2018, it was still at five percent; in 2021, the Chinese can already claim a nine percent share. The growth is coming at the expense of German and Japanese suppliers. Germany accounted for a proud 23 percent of total sales in 2018, while Japan contributed 27 percent. Both nations have since recorded painful declines. German suppliers now contribute only 21 percent of the industry’s total global sales, while the Japanese account for 24 percent.
The fact that 2021 was a successful year for the industry is also reflected in the fact that 58 suppliers are already generating higher sales again in 2021 than before the outbreak of the pandemic. Compared to 2020, average profitability has doubled from 3% to 6%. However, the success is not equally distributed across the industry. It mainly affects companies in the semiconductor industry. What led to curtailed production and fully parked logistics areas with unfinished vehicles at OEMs enabled chip suppliers to set sales, revenue and profit records in 2021. As a result, semiconductor manufacturers saw their automotive sales increase disproportionately by an average of 34 percent and achieved margins of 19 percent. What’s more, the ubiquity of electromobility continued to set the pace in 2021. But see for yourself:
Our Berylls Top 100 table shows you the most important key figures of the largest automotive suppliers of the last 11 years. Compare two years with each other in the "Comparison Mode" or analyze all figures of the last 11 years in the "Timeline Mode". You can customize the table using the upper filters and cluster by individual columns if required. To sort, just click on the respective column.
Got itFor eleven years, Berylls has annually surveyed the top 100 automotive suppliers worldwide. During this time, a lot has happened and moved on the markets and in the production halls of the companies. Back in 2011, the industry was on the upswing after the previous global financial crisis. Sales have increased year on year since then, from 2011 (euros 663 billion) to 2019 (euros 914 billion) by a total of 38 percent, or an average of 4.1 percent annually. And the profitability of the top 100 suppliers also improved every year until 2017, consistently exceeding 7 percent from 2012 to 2018. In 2020, the top 100, with total sales of just under EUR 800 billion, were still around 20 percent above the level of ten years ago. Profitability, on the other hand, was at an all-time low of only about 3 percent. In 2019, the year before the pandemic, the margin was still 6 percent and thus at a comparable level to 2011 (6.7 percent). In 2021, sales of the world’s 100 largest automotive suppliers, at 899 billion, are well above the level of the previous year, which was dominated by Covid-19. Average profitability can also be increased significantly again to 6.3 percent, the same level as in 2018/2019. So what has happened in these eleven years?
The next 10 years will see much greater upheaval. Suppliers with a high proportion of combustion engines, such as Mahle, BorgWarner, Tenneco or Eberspächer, will be pushed backwards without any countermeasures. Electrical/electronics groups with strong software expertise, such as Continental, Bosch or Hella, will grow disproportionately. The Asian players, above all the Chinese supplier companies and the players from the IT and consumer electronics sectors, Huawei, Samsung and LG, will steadily gain in importance through acquisitions (also) of traditional companies. The weight will shift more strongly in the direction of Asia. However, German suppliers are well equipped to master the next phase of the tough transformation.
In 2019, the 100 largest global automotive suppliers were once again able to increase their sales. Their combined turnover reached almost 918 bn euros. This represents a respectable increase of +4.3 percent in an otherwise difficult year. The earnings decline over the recent years has intensified; after 8.7 percent in 2017, 7.5 percent in 2018, an average margin of only 6.0 percent was achieved in 2019.
In 2019, the 100 largest global automotive suppliers were once again able to increase their sales. Their combined turnover reached almost 918 bn euros. This represents a respectable increase of +4.3 percent in an otherwise difficult year. The earnings decline over the recent years has intensified; after 8.7 percent in 2017, 7.5 percent in 2018, an average margin of only 6.0 percent was achieved in 2019.
In 2019, the 100 largest global automotive suppliers were once again able to increase their sales. Their combined turnover reached almost 918 bn euros. This represents a respectable increase of +4.3 percent in an otherwise difficult year. The earnings decline over the recent years has intensified; after 8.7 percent in 2017, 7.5 percent in 2018, an average margin of only 6.0 percent was achieved in 2019.
In 2019, the 100 largest global automotive suppliers were once again able to increase their sales. Their combined turnover reached almost 918 bn euros. This represents a respectable increase of +4.3 percent in an otherwise difficult year. The earnings decline over the recent years has intensified; after 8.7 percent in 2017, 7.5 percent in 2018, an average margin of only 6.0 percent was achieved in 2019.
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