Bosch’s China sales rise 24% in 2017

BOSCH posted a nearly 24 percent jump in sales in China last year amid rapid growth in the country’s new energy vehicle market and accelerated industrial upgrading, it said yesterday.

However, the German engineering and electronics company sees sales to grow moderately in China in 2018 “due to rising geopolitical risks and economic uncertainties caused by trade tensions” between China and the US. The group expects sales to grow only 2-3 percent annually in China this year,

Bosch’s sales totaled 113.4 billion yuan (US$17.8 billion) in China last year, up nearly 24 percent from a year ago.

China remains Bosch’s largest single market outside its home, taking up over 60 percent of sales growth in Asia Pacific, said Peter Tyroller, a management board member at the company.

Although China’s auto market grew at the slowest since 2012 overall, sales of new-energy vehicles soared 53.3 percent to 777,000 units last year, said the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

“That has bolstered our performance last year as mobility remains the key sector of our business in China,” Tyroller said.

Bosch’s industrial technology and smart city businesses also grew rapidly as China quickened its upgrading in manufacturing and consumer industries last year, according to Tyroller.