Manufacturing in China and its environmental impacts - Essay Example

The automotive industry played, and continues to play, a key role in this concept. The Volkswagen Group has set up two joint ventures for the manufacture of automobiles in China. While the Shanghai Volkswagen success story began in 1984, the contracts for FAW-Volkswagen were signed in the northern Chinese city of Changchun in 1990. In January 2003, another joint venture, this time producing gearboxes, began operations in Shanghai. This was followed in 2004 by a joint company for manufacturing powertrain components.

Two further joint ventures for modern engines started production in 2006 and 2007. Data suggest that there is a constant steady growth during the time of study, except between the years 2001 and 2002. Primarily, the reason for this is that China has become a member of the World Trade Organization in 2001. As the sales performance shows, the Volkswagen Group has gained full advantage of this opportunity. The data clearly suggest continuous growth of product sale from 1999 to 2006; however, the market share has been reduced from a peak of 50% to 17.

1% in 2006. The tendency of decrease in market share is expected, mainly due to the current and anticipated burgeoning growth of automobile ownership in China. Toyota has grown to become a large multinational corporation from where it started. It has expanded to different worldwide markets and countries by becoming the largest seller of cars in the beginning of 2007 and the most profitable automaker in 2006 with increasing sales in the world. Toyota has long been recognized as an industry leader in manufacturing and production.

In retrospect, Toyota Motor Company Limited (currently Toyota Motor Corporation) was established in 1937 and started to export automotive to China since 1964. It founded Toyota Automotive Services Centre in Beijing and the Technical Support Centre in Tianjin in 1980 and 1990, respectively.