Growth in the seating market - The Inside Line - Brief Article

Automotive Industries,  April, 2002  

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The seat assembly can be considered the auto industry's first "module." Perhaps as a consequence, there has been tremendous consolidation in the seat market, which includes mechanism, frame, fastener, foam, and cut-and-sew suppliers. Within the past six years, the North American market has lost six seat assembly suppliers (see chart).

Will the future of the seating market bring more consolidation? Probably not. In fact, by 2006 two new suppliers will appear in North America -- Faurecia and TISA (a Lear Takashimaya joint venture). As OEMs demand reductions in weight and cost from their seat suppliers, they do so while insisting on increases in convenience features and safety items.

Items such as lumbar systems, message functions, and heated and cooled seats have become more prominent in recent years. As these technologies improve and become less costly, they are added to seats across a variety of platforms. Additionally, safety items such as occupant and position sensing for airbag deployment are on the horizon.

In the U.S., there is a mandate for driver and passenger airbags to adapt their deployment based on crash conditions and occupant size by 2007. With this attention to safety, side-impact airbags will increase. Side-impact airbags, which include side-front seat and side-rear-seat airbags, have just over a 12 percent penetration rate in North America. That is expected to grow to about 20 percent by 2006.

This $8.0 billion market consists of about 72 suppliers, counting mechanisms, foam and cover. Those could certainly grow if more features find their way into the seat.

CSM Worldwide www.csmauto.com

Seat Assembly Suppliers

1996  24
2002  18
2006  20

Source: CSM Worldwide/www.csmauto.com

Note: Table made from bar graph

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