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)
