Industry insiders launch automotive representation in China

It was announced today that Downs-Automotive has opened an affiliation in China to offer an even better support to its International automotive customers.

Downs-Automotive was founded in 2007 by automotive veteran and industrialist Michael Charles Downs as a response to the industry’s needs for a commercial and technical sales platform for component and raw material suppliers in Europe, offering focused specialist support and industrial insight for interior trim applications such as instrument panel and consoles.

Downs-EWG has been set up together with Ari van der Steenhoven who has been located in China for more than fifteen years clearly offering therefore a vast amount of local experience and knowledge. Ari is founder and owner of the Eastwingate Company in Shanghai, Eastwingate was set up some twelve years ago to assist and support companies as they entered the Chinese industrial arena. The company also carries out local Vapro programs for Quality and safety awareness training.

Downs stated; “as our industry evolves and adjusts to meet the ever more demanding economic challenges, it is becoming more and more difficult to spend continuous and therefore costly resources in these areas”.

“Our field of expertise is really twofold, firstly we assist the OEM in identifying for example suitable partners for the development & supply of components and raw materials and secondly we assist both incumbent and future suppliers in gaining a stronger technical and commercial position which leads to improved supplier-customer relationships”.

Downs-Automotive is currently working on European based projects which require a strong international presence with focus on Euro-China platforms.

As European OEMs transfer projects to China, they naturally require the highest technical and quality standards. In some areas the standards have even been lifted, emissions and smell of interior components are a good example of this.

Downs-Automotive & Downs-EWG offer not only local qualified technical and sales representation but they will manage the product through the required release process requirements set down by the individual OEM, this will cover applications, design to cost optimization, manufacturability and safety. Local warehousing and distribution facilities in China are also available.

In 2006 Mike Downs was in the news as co-founder of Polyscope Polymers, a company which acquired the ex-DSM SMA (Styrene Maleic Anhydride) manufacturing facility in Geleen, The Netherlands.

Polyscope manufacture and supply SMA not only for automotive applications but also for the construction and paper processing industries.