Chinese Auto Parts Maker Opens San Clemente Office
It’s a long way from Beijing to San Clemente, but that’s where shiploads of Chinese-made auto parts are headed these days. Orange County’s southernmost city is where Asian Strategic Investments Corp. has set up its first U.S. operation.
The company, Asimco Components Group USA, is an arm of the Beijing-based, U.S.-owned investment company--which has manufacturing and distribution deals with 15 Chinese automotive parts makers. Asimco is jointly owned by GE Pension Trust, Los Angeles-based investment firm Trust Company of the West and its own management, Chairman Jack Perkowski said.
Perkowski, former investment banking director for PaineWebber and a China hand since 1990, started the business in 1993. “We’ve been manufacturing for the China market since then and began studying export opportunities about 18 months ago,” he said. The United States, with its huge automobile population, was a logical target, and Asimco’s studies showed that Chinese-made auto parts would do well here.
The decision to start a U.S. import and distribution unit, Perkowski said, came from the desire “to make ourselves different from other Chinese suppliers.” Asimco wanted “to put a U.S. face on the company so customers would be dealing with a supplier here and wouldn’t have to cope with the time and language differences” involved in calling China with orders, questions and complaints, he said.
Asimco USA opened a small warehouse and sales office with a staff of six in San Clemente early this year. The company recently opened a New Jersey sales office and wants to expand to the Midwest, Perkowski said.
The company’s Chinese manufacturing partners make a variety of products, including brake parts, diesel fuel injection systems, automotive ignition and electrical system components, gears, rubber seals and motorcycle wheels. One company does chrome plating.
Perkowski says Asimco already is supplying components to parts makers in the U.S. and plans eventually to market parts under its own name. Parts from China come in through the Port of Long Beach and are either shipped directly to the customer or trucked to the warehouse, which the company opened to keep a 30-day supply of materials on hand to speed up delivery time for U.S. customers.
While San Clemente is a bit of a haul from the port, it is where Dennis Rogers, the executive in charge of the operation, lives. “That’s how those decisions get made,” Perkowski said.
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John O’Dell covers major Orange County corporations and manufacturing for The Times. He can be reached at (714) 966-5831 and at john.odell@latimes.com.
