Sinotruk, China's largest heavy duty truck manufacturer, has secured a combined order for 10,000 heavy trucks from Russia and Vietnam, a company spokesman told Xinhua on Monday.

 

"We just signed an agreement on December 7 with Russian automobile maker Zavod Imeni Lihacheva (ZIL) to set up a joint venture to sell and assemble HOWO series heavy trucks in Russia," said spokesman Guo Huanan.

 

According to the agreement, the two sides will each hold a 50-percent stake of the new venture named HOWO-ZIL.

 

The two sides have signed a sales contract to sell 7,600 heavy trucks in Russia next year including a purchase order of 800 trucks for January, added Guo.

 

He said that Sinotruk and its Russian partner would kick off their collaboration by making use of ZIL's sales network to sell Sinotruk's HOWO series heavy trucks in Russia and conduct the completely knocked down (CKD) cooperation by the middle of next year, meaning Sinotruk would provide ZIL with vehicle parts for it to assemble in Russia.

 

Earlier this October, the Shandong-based company also signed a contract with TMT Auto company, Vietnam's largest commercial vehicle distributor, to sell 2,500 trucks in Vietnam.

 

"We hope to sell a total of 30,000 trucks overseas in 2008," said Guo.

 

Following Sinotruk's entry into the Russian market at the beginning of this year, 50 models of its trucks have been granted product certification and more than 30 service stations have been established in Russia.

 

Sinotruk was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange at the end of November and netted more than nine billion Hong Kong dollars (1.15 billion U.S. dollars) to boost its product research and development and to fund the upgrading of its facilities.

 

However, its trading price fell 16 percent from its initial public offering price of 12.88 Hong Kong dollars to close at 10.88 dollars on its debut, in what was the largest first-day plunge of the year.

 

(Xinhua News Agency December 17, 2007)