In affluent markets like Europe – Austria for example -- people like to spend on automotive and accessories. Certain researches have shown that Austrians spend over $2 billion yearly on automotive parts and accessories. The European automotive aftermarket is worth US $850 bn, representing 30% of the global aftermarket. Forecasts indicate that the market for automobile accessories manufacturers will continue to expand.

The leading carmakers like DaimlerChrysler, Ford Motor, and General Motors -- the three bigges -- that have been historically at each others throats trying to outwit, outplay and outlast one another in the face of stiff competition have offlate been seen to veer towards the B2B market. The firms’ e-business tasks such as business-to-business procurement, business-to-consumer sales and marketing and online navigational and car alarm technologies is increasingly moving away from their traditional suppliers to internet. DaimlerChrysler, like other traditional offline manufacturers, is looking to the Internet to streamline procurement and sales processes to cut costs.

Pertinently, China’s auto parts exports have increased more than six fold in the last five years, nearly topping $1 billion recently and emerging as one of the fastest-growing categories of Chinese industrial products sold overseas. More than half of these auto parts go to the United States; most of the rest to Europe and Japan. The rise of Chinese auto parts exports is part of a much broader shift. China is moving up from basic goods toward higher-value industrial goods that pay better wages and is seen as effective competition to auto products from advanced industrialized countries like the United States.

The author is a freelance writer, editor & expert of import-exports. He writes about international trade, business to business trade & online trade scenario. He writes for trade portal-Fuzing.