Foreign-invested automotive companies are reshaping their strategies in the Chinese market, and some weaker partners are likely to be affected by these changes. On July 24, Iveco announced a joint venture agreement with SAIC Motor, aiming to acquire a 67% stake in Chongqing Hongyan Automobile Co., Ltd., a heavy-duty commercial vehicle manufacturer. The deal involves an investment of 120 million euros in Chongqing, with Iveco contributing 40 million euros. This agreement is currently awaiting approval from the Chinese government.
To clear the way for its partnership with SAIC, Iveco recently terminated its collaboration with Changzhou Yangtze River Passenger Vehicles. It transferred its 50% stake in the joint venture for just $1, effectively ending the relationship. This move marks the conclusion of another "divorce and remarriage" scenario in China’s auto industry.
Under the new arrangement, the former "Changzhou Iveco" brand will no longer be used. The company is currently rebranding, and new business registrations are underway. Meanwhile, Iveco has sold the intellectual property rights of key technologies—such as the 391 series passenger car chassis and various bus models—to Changzhou Iveco. This allows the latter to continue producing vehicles using Iveco technology even after the split.
According to insiders, the next step for Changzhou Iveco is to wait for potential restructuring opportunities. Several companies have already shown interest, and discussions are ongoing. “Our foundation is solid. This is a valuable resource,†one insider said.
Iveco's path hasn't been smooth. In August 2005, it filed a lawsuit against Cheung Kong Bus Group and its chairman, Sun Yuanlin, alleging unauthorized transfer of 120.58 million RMB from a joint venture to Changzhou Yangtze River Passenger Vehicle. The case was part of a broader effort to exit the Changzhou joint venture and push forward with a three-way partnership involving SAIC and Chongqing Heavy Duty Truck.
Initially, Iveco tried to withdraw from the joint venture but failed. It then urged SAIC to buy its shares directly. However, Jiangsu Province imposed strict conditions, requiring SAIC to assume all debts and liabilities of Changzhou Iveco, which would have cost hundreds of millions more. SAIC refused, leading Iveco to take legal action.
After several failed attempts, the situation escalated quickly. By September 2005, local authorities in Changzhou approved the divestment and appointed auditors to assess the company's assets, using the valuation as a basis for returning Iveco's investment.
This trend of "divorce and remarriage" among foreign automakers is becoming increasingly common in China. As the auto industry matures, partnerships are evolving, and only the strongest players are likely to survive. Similar cases have occurred before, such as the reorganization of Tianjin Xiali, where shares were transferred to FAW, or Mercedes-Benz’s shift in cooperation from Yaxing to BAIC and Fuzhou. These moves reflect a larger pattern: foreign investors are strategically adjusting their positions to align with stronger domestic partners.
As the Chinese market becomes more competitive, such strategic realignments are expected to become the norm. Companies that fail to adapt risk being left behind.
Heat Treated Steel Bar And Tube
HEAT TREATED STEEL BAR AND TUBE
Heat treated steel bar is produced by heating and cooling in different temperature based on the steel grades to improve the steel bar mechanical properties or machinability for various industrial applications. Heat treated steel bar includes annealed steel bars, Normalized Steel Bar, quenched and temper qt steel bar.
Annealed steel bar has better ductility and lower hardness, which can be easier to be machined. The annealing processing is usually widely used for steel grade with higher carbon content above 0.5%. However, some low carbon steel also requires to do annealing for special usage such as 20CrMnTi gear steel. For some special material such as 20CrMnTi gear steel and GCr15 such bearing steel, spheroidizing annealing is often required.
Normalized steel bar sometime is also one kind of annealing processing. It mainly changes the grain to remove the impurities in steel and improves the strength and hardness. For some hot rolled steel bars, to keep the basic mechanical properties, normalizing is often used.
Quenching and Tempering, abbreviated as Q&T is a king of processing that strengthen or harden steel bars by heating the materials and then cooling in water, oil or other liquid medium, that rapidly the change from austenite to perlite to get the proper properties for various usage. The quenched & tempered steel bar materials are usually with carbon from 0.30% - 0.60%, it is widely used as merchant bars in components of various machines.
Our advantages on producing heat treated steel bars:
1) Big stocks of hot rolled round bars or wire rods as raw materials
2) Wide range of Cold Drawn Steel Bar sizes: from 10mm to 150mm
3) Different cold drawing medias powder or oil to get different surface
4) Straightening machines to get better straightness up to 0.5mm/m
5) Grinding and polishing machines to get better roughness upto 0.4um
6) Heat treating furnaces to adjust the mechanical properties
7) Full sets of testing equipment to test the sizes, mechanical properties and microstructure.
8) Multiple packages to avoid broken packages and anti-rusty
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SHANDONG LE REN SPECIAL STEEL CO., LTD. , https://www.lerenspecialsteel.com