Bosch is poised to expand its car service network at a quicker pace in China, as shown by the recent acquisition of franchised certificates by a group of Chinese auto repair workshops from the world's biggest supplier of equipment for cars.

Authorized by Bosch, eleven auto maintenance workshops in east China's Guangdong Province earlier this week began to provide after-sales services for Chinese auto buyers under the logo of the Germany-based company.

Bosch set a toe in China's auto repair industry in the 1980s and has since taken moderate actions in the nation. By the end of 2003, the car service mogul had established only 200 or so after-sales service centers in the Chinese mainland.

Since 2003, Bosch has started to rev up the implementation of its China strategy and is planning to increase the number of its car service centers on the mainland to 1,000 by 2010.

Bosch sees China's auto market as forging ahead rapidly and predicts that it will become the second largest auto manufacturer around 2007 and the top market in the world by 2020, according to an after-sales service manager of Bosch Shanghai.

Besides Bosch, auto service giants from the United States and Japan have shown interest in the growing auto repair market in China.

Autobacs, the biggest car service enterprise of Japan, is building a leading auto service joint-venture company in cooperation with a Shanghai business.

(eastday. com May 31, 2004)