Arrow Platinum survey: China has become the world's largest manufacturer of commercial vehicle industry

The reporter learned from the "2010 Global Commercial Vehicle Industry Outlook Report" recently published by global business consulting company AlixPartners (Ai Ruibo) that China's commercial vehicle industry has experienced unprecedented growth in 2009 and the first half of 2010, after the Chinese OEM Manufacturers and component suppliers are currently facing tremendous opportunities and competitive challenges.

According to reports, global commercial vehicle production fell by 29% in 2009, while China's commercial vehicle market has grown by more than 22%, and accounted for 49% of global production in terms of production unit volume. In the first half of 2010, China's commercial vehicle market further increased. It has grown by 76%. The driving force for this strong growth comes from the advantages of China's production of low-cost products to meet the needs of booming emerging markets such as Africa and Southeast Asia, as well as from the Chinese market itself. Even considering the lower average value of commercial vehicles in China, this growth still shows that China has a huge share of global commercial vehicle production. For those mature commercial vehicle manufacturers from Western Europe, the United States, and Japan, this is a A serious challenge. In addition, China's exports are rising rapidly, which shows that in the mid-end commercial vehicle market that is growing in other emerging markets, Chinese commercial vehicle manufacturers have brought greater challenges to other relatively mature global commercial vehicle manufacturers.

The report also pointed out that some western commercial vehicle manufacturers (OEM manufacturers and parts suppliers) underestimated the growth potential of China and other emerging markets, and did not value-oriented design of their products to meet the needs of the local market. As a result, the profitability of China's major commercial vehicle manufacturers is gradually increasing. This has led to an increase in research and development capabilities and an increase in global market share. Among them, five Chinese OEM manufacturers are already ranked among the top 15 suppliers of commercial vehicles in terms of output. Among them, they are: Dongfeng, China FAW, China National Heavy Duty Truck, Foton Motors, and Shaanxi Automobile. Strong demand from China and other emerging markets will continue to grow rapidly. It is expected that by 2014 global commercial vehicle production will increase by 1.8 million, of which more than 50% will come from these markets. According to the AlixPartners report, the entire industry is evolving towards manufacturing mid-range vehicles due to the increase in automobile emission standards in China and other emerging markets. This is an opportunity for both Chinese and Western mature manufacturers. It is also a challenge.

Mr. Ivo Naumann, managing director of AlixPartners and head of the Shanghai office, said: “Localization of products in specific markets is critical to achieving market share in the global environment.” He also pointed out: “By improving product quality while maintaining acceptable cost levels, China has successfully entered the mid-end market for commercial trucks, and the rapidly-developing economy in emerging markets including China itself has a strong demand for the mid-range commercial vehicle market. This growth will continue, and will enable Chinese commercial vehicle manufacturers to increase their investments in R&D to upgrade their production technologies so that their products will meet certain emission standards in China and in emerging global markets. Not enough to seize the 'technical' part of the commercial vehicle market to meet the needs of countries that have the highest requirements for technology and emissions standards."

"The global parts suppliers still dominate the high-tech market, but they need to continue to develop localized products and increase production in order to maintain the fastest growing market," said Yao Xi, vice president of AlixPartners Shanghai. Competitiveness, but for those who have been focusing on high-end technology for a long time, this is a very difficult thing. On the other hand, some Chinese domestic parts suppliers have already dominated some domestic markets and continue to be in the technical field. Progress at full speed."

Many governments around the world are pressing ahead with a timetable for raising emission standards. China is currently implementing the Euro III emission standard and will formally implement Euro IV in 2010 and implement Euro V emission standards in 2012. In addition to this, some other factors, such as the implementation of safety standards, the increase in energy prices, the improvement of infrastructure and the demand for high load capacity, are prompting the development of China's commercial vehicle market to high-end products.

These challenges have led some Western companies to form alliances with China’s leading companies and have occupied a minority stake in Chinese-funded companies. For example, China National Heavy Duty Truck Group recently conducted strategic cooperation with MAN from Germany. However, for those foreign companies wishing to enter the Chinese market, there are already a few potential partners in this industry.

"The commercial vehicle market will also experience a period of sustained growth before 2014, and the European and U.S. markets with huge volumes of output will recover," Roman said. "We expect the year-on-year growth of China's commercial vehicle market will moderate since then, because the The growth base of the market is already large, but local manufacturers will continue to occupy more than 95% of the market share, which is different from foreign manufacturers' share of most of the market in the passenger car market. The biggest question, then, is who will win the largest share of growth in emerging markets."

AlixPartners' "2010 Global Commercial Vehicle Industry Outlook Report" is based on an in-depth survey of global and Chinese commercial vehicle manufacturers and suppliers.