Who is the first in China's heavy-duty truck exports?
When "export and globalization" become the hot words and acceleration direction of China's automobile industry, there is a sub-segment that is quietly accelerating its conquest of the global market and refreshing China's automobile business card.
That is heavy-duty trucks (including semi-trailer tractors, load-carrying, dump trucks, and special-purpose trucks). Heavy-duty trucks are very important in the commercial vehicle industry, but they are a sub-segment that does not win in market sales by scale, but by technology and profitability.
Since the beginning of this year, in line with the general trend of China's automobile exports continuing to rise, China's commercial vehicle exports have continued to perform well, becoming a rare growth point outside the fierce stock competition in the domestic market.
According to data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, commercial vehicle exports reached 679,000 units from January to September this year, a year-on-year increase of 23.6%. Among them, heavy-duty trucks accounted for 39.3%, about 266,800 units, almost equivalent to the annual export sales of heavy-duty trucks in 2023 (268,000 units), far exceeding the annual export sales of heavy-duty trucks in 2021 (210,000 units).
Heavy-duty trucks are based on technology and profitability. The rapid growth in export sales has further proved that Chinese heavy-duty trucks are accelerating the export of technology to the global market and seizing market share.
The "big brother of heavy-duty trucks" with 140,000 exports
The domestic heavy-duty truck market this year is not good, and the overall sales performance is not satisfactory. According to data from the China Automobile Association, from January to September this year, the cumulative sales of heavy-duty trucks in my country were 682,900, a year-on-year decrease of 3.4%.
As the earliest Chinese heavy-duty truck company and brand to go out of the country to explore overseas markets, China National Heavy Duty Truck has always maintained a leading position in heavy-duty truck exports. It has been the top exporter of heavy-duty trucks for 18 consecutive years, and this year it is bound to continue to break this record.
Not only that, the outside world unanimously believes that China National Heavy Duty Truck will be expected to exceed 140,000 heavy-duty truck exports this year. And this is not an unfounded conjecture. In 2023, China National Heavy Duty Truck's heavy-duty truck exports exceeded 130,000, a year-on-year increase of 47%, and achieved export revenue of 42.9 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 55%.
Stronger technical foundation and brand power
Take Sinotruk as an example. In order to continuously improve the core power chain technology and consolidate its leading position in the industry, Sinotruk cooperates with global peers to innovate, and its overseas R&D centers are spread all over the world.
In the past five years, Sinotruk has spent an astonishing nearly 15 billion yuan on R&D expenses for various technologies and value systems. It is completely cost-effective to strengthen its own technology, increase value for users, and expand the competitiveness of the brand.
As for the various technical routes of fuel, gas, pure electric, hybrid, and hydrogen fuel, as well as commercial vehicle intelligent network technology, Sinotruk's R&D investment is also extremely generous, and the results are also very significant.
The future of heavy trucks cannot be separated from overseas markets
The arrival of the era of going overseas has opened the door to the world for Chinese cars, which is a precious opportunity that cannot be missed. Among the car companies that have tasted the sweetness of exports, the most typical ones in passenger cars are Chery and SAIC, and the representative of heavy trucks is Sinotruk.
The road to exporting overseas is still long and critical, and it is worth every Chinese automobile company and brand to carefully observe, operate well, and work hard for a long time.