TIANJIN. When Toyota and China’s First Automotive Works (FAW) enter into a joint venture, it goes without saying that their offspring, FAW-Toyota, would be an uncommonly important customer. After all, Toyota is currently the world’s largest automaker, and FAW is the largest vehicle and engine manufacturer in China. Excellence Quality Award It is all the more remarkable that this top customer has honored NOK-Freudenberg China (NFC) for the third time in a row. The “Excellent Quality Award,” bestowed in the port city of Tianjin on March 24, is the company’s highest award. It is only given out to a small group of suppliers. Once again, NFC, or more precisely Wuxi NOK-Freudenberg Oil Seal (WNF), is one of them. Moreover, it is the only representative of the “rubber industry” in the group. The crucial yardstick in granting the award was the highest possible quality while maintaining cost-effectiveness. WNF supplies FAW-Toyota with a wide array of seals for engines, transmissions, steering systems, air-conditioning and vibration control systems. In 2015, WNF’s relations with FAW-Toyota not only proved to be superb from a technical and quality standpoint. Total sales to the joint venture also grew quite well. Two Other Awards NOK-Freudenberg China had the honor of accepting two other awards at the end of 2015. GETRAG (Jiangxi) Transmission Co. Ltd., a joint venture between one of the world’s largest transmission manufacturers, GETRAG, and the Jiangling Motors Group, presented NOK-Freudenberg China with its award for “outstanding logistics service.” It was just one of three suppliers to receive this honor. In 2015, the partners collaborated on several projects successfully. The quality of NFC’s service was apparently right. Another Chinese automaker, Anhui Jianghuai Automobile (JAC), bestowed an award on NFC in November, namely the “Quality Contribution Award.” This award, which the NOK-Freudenberg joint venture in China received for the second time, emphasized the high quality of its products. NFC has supplied JAC with engine and transmission seals since 2008. The focus is currently on solutions that minimize friction.