TRUCKS MARKET * China - Insatiable Appetite For Heavy-Duty Trucks

China’s heavy duty truck sales will reach 900,000 units for the full year

Beijing,China -Forbes (USA), by Jack Perkowski -16 Aug 2010: ... Heavy-duty trucks are the quiet, seldom discussed, workhorses in any economy. They haul the steel, coal and other raw materials to manufacturing plants around the country; get building materials to construction sites, wherever they may be located; and carry finished goods to market. With a booming economy, and a land mass of 9.6 million square kilometers, approximately the same as the United States, China seems to have an insatiable appetite for these vehicles... Through July, sales of trucks of this size led the commercial vehicle category with a staggering 99 percent increase compared to last year. For the first seven months, Chinese assemblers sold a total of 4.0 million commercial vehicles, including 2.3 million trucks and 1.7 million buses of all sizes. Of this total, heavy-duty trucks accounted for approximately 650,000 units. Most experts believe that China’s heavy duty truck sales will reach 900,000 units for the full year... In China, the top five producers of heavy-duty trucks are all local companies: First Auto Works (FAW), SinoTruk, Dongfeng, Foton and Sha’anxi Truck. For all intents and purposes, the heavy duty truck market is a purely local affair in China, and it is likely to stay that way... The obvious reason is price. While a truck manufactured by one of the global assemblers might cost upwards of $100,000, the average heavy-duty truck manufactured by SinoTruk sold for less than $40,000 in 2009. Granted, trucks used in developed markets are not quite comparable to those in China because they must comply with stricter emission standards and include many, many more features than their Chinese counterparts. Nonetheless, the domination of the Chinese heavy-duty market by the local players demonstrates once again the importance of price and the issue of affordability in the China market... (Image from stockinterview: Daily convoy of LNG trucks responding to China’s demand for energy)