STORY: Rapid innovation in China fuels companies' growth, says ZF Group executive
SHOOTING TIME: Sept. 27, 2024
DATELINE: Sept. 29, 2024
LENGTH: 00:02:48
LOCATION: Berlin
CATEGORY: ECONOMY

SHOTLIST:
1. various of InnoTrans and ZF Group
2. SOUNDBITE 1 (English): PETER LAIER, Senior executive of ZF Group
3. various of InnoTrans and ZF Group
4. SOUNDBITE 2 (English): PETER LAIER, Senior executive of ZF Group

STORYLINE:

Peter Laier, a senior executive of the leading German auto supplier ZF Group, said he is happy to see the high speed of innovative development in China as it will benefit the growth of foreign companies like ZF.

Laier was interviewed by Xinhua at the 2024 International Trade Fair for Transport Technology (InnoTrans), which ran from Sept. 24 to 27 in Berlin.

SOUNDBITE 1 (English): PETER LAIER, Senior executive of ZF Group"We as ZF are since a long time working in China and we are proud about that. We have started our business in the 1980s. A significant step we achieved in 2014 when we stepped into the supply of Chinese high-speed trains and then metros. For us, the success of our activities in China is based on a local-for-local approach. That means we are localizing engineering. We are localizing manufacturing.
We have a high authority of our teams in China to interact with our Chinese customers. And we are pretty proud about that. And I think we can contribute with our know-how and our technology to the success of rail and bus industry in China. And we are fully supporting them in their new endeavors."

The company, with operations in 31 countries, reported remarkable profits from the Chinese market in 2023. According to its 2023 financial report, ZF's sales in China reached a record high of 8.1 billion euros (9 billion U.S. dollars), marking a 5.2 percent year-on-year increase.

SOUNDBITE 2 (English): PETER LAIER, Senior executive of ZF Group
"We see definitely a lot of opportunities. We see the Chinese customers more and more going in the direction of technology leadership. And we are a technology leader, so we are very happy to cooperate and interact with our Chinese customers providing our technology in different segments. We will continuously invest in China further on the one side in R&D, localization of R&D as well as in local production, as well of our new technologies. We have announced several strategic partnerships, for example last week on IAA transportation with Chinese customers. And we think that in the next years in different areas, be it in our rail technology, be it in our bus technology, be it in commercial vehicles, we will overproportionally grow. In China with our Chinese customers on the one side with their domestic market activities, but we know as well that our Chinese customers in these different areas want to go more and more for export, and we are happy to be their partner to support them for those activities as well."

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Berlin.
(XHTV)