1st ICAI 2020

International Conference on Automotive Industry 2020

Mladá Boleslav, Czech Republic

their share on EU-27’s GDP) than Germany and Italy. Subsequently, the total EVA of the EU-27 automotive industry is negative for the entire period 2015-2018.

4. Discussion and Conclusion The analysis of financial indicators in the automotive industry confirms the fact that the automotive industry is an important generator of economic performance, especially for the countries of Eastern and Central Europe. At the same time, however, it shows the vulnerability and dependence of these economies on the industry, which will clearly go through a transition in the next period. The ratio of turnover to GDP at current prices was chosen as an indicator measuring the significance of automotive industry for the EU-27 countries. This indicator includes the turnover of all automotive companies (final producers, suppliers and special- purpose entities) involved in NACE Rev. 2. 2: 29 classification. From this perspective, it is possible to identify countries where the turnover to GDP reaches significant values that more than twice exceed the EU-27 average. These countries include Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Germany and Hungary. In the case of Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary, these countries can be described as an integrated peripheries of the current world automotive industry that are part of the global production network. The position of the automotive industry in these countries reflects their specific involvement in global automotive production networks, where foreign direct investments play a key role (Pavlínek, 2017). Another country with a high ratio of automotive industry turnover to GDP is Germany. It is evident that the importance of the automotive industry for the economy here has somewhat different dimensions (see among others the indicator of automotive industry turnover per capita, which significantly exceeds the values of the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia). It can be summarized that the importance of the automotive industry for the German economy is determined by different factors than in the Central and Eastern European countries. These include the following: 1. The tradition of automotive and its long-term importance for the German economy (as in the USA and Japan), 2. Focus on the luxury (premium) segment, where revenues are higher than in other segments. This is also confirmed by the level of operating profit margins that are the highest between the four countries in question. Currently, German automotive controls 75% of the premium segment of the world market (Bormann et al., 2018), 3. Dominant position in the vertical global production network where German automotive, through ownership control in the above-mentioned integrated peripheries, promotes and controls the focus on high value-added production (R&D, production strategy, marketing, final production) (Gereffi et al. 2005, Pavlínek and Ženka, 2016). 4. Concentration on the final production (with higher added value and subsequently with higher turnover) directed gradually to a greater extent on export, where the intermediate products are supplied by integrated peripheries (Hummels

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