CHINA TRUCK MARKET
KEY FINDINGS
- In 2020, trucks occupied more than 90% of the vehicles sold in Commercial Vehicle segment
- After first 4 months in 2021, there was on an average 50% Y-o-Y growth in sales of light and heavy trucks
- OEMs are sourcing Components from Tier-1 suppliers to reduce investment on R&D
- Recent policy changes have led to a dramatic shift from Heavy-Duty trucks to tractors as the power unit of choice for logistics
- Commercial truck manufacturers are manufacturing their products based on the application and usage like Construction, Mining, and Logistics & commodities
- The market leaders in the trucks segment are Foton, Dongfeng and Sinotruck. Top 3 players accounted for 35% of the overall market volume.
INTRODUCTION
In 2020, overall truck sales were record 4.6M units with an approximate growth rate of 40% in all of the segments.
Light trucks alone accounted for 45% of the overall truck sales in the country and witnessed the highest growth rate compared to 2019.
Heavy duty trucks accounted for ~35% of the overall volume and witnessed about 38% Y-o-Y growth. Jiefang was the market leader in the heavy trucks segment with market share of ~23%.
CHINA TRUCK MARKET DYNAMICS
Unlike 2020, the start of 2021 has shown a lot of promise to be the most selling year for trucks in the country. After the first 4 months of 2021, in the light trucks segment volumes have witnessed a growth of 49% for the same period in 2020. In 2021, the sales numbers of light trucks in the period were 814,000.
Second most popular segment in the country, heavy trucks have surpassed the growth rate of light trucks and the Y-o-Y for the period Jan-Apr has been ~57%. The sales volumes in the period are around 465,000.
However, most of the top ten players in the heavy-duty market witnessed a drop in sales in the month of April. After an early burst of heavy trucks, sales might move at a moderate pace for the rest of the year.
From January to April in 2021 the total sales volume of tractor trucks reached 366,000 units, up by 45% Y-o-Y. Beiben is the market leader in the segment as it witnessed a growth of 205% Y-o-Y, followed by Dongfeng.
The below chart shows the volume split of different types of trucks in China in 2020
Apart from the domestic sales the exports have also been reaching new heights. Dongfeng’s commercial vehicle exports jumped by 30% in the Q1 of 2021.
In Australian & New Zealand markets GWM’s light trucks have entered the top-10 sellers list with its GWM Power vehicle
CHINA TRUCK MARKET SEGMENTATION
By Vehicle Type
- Light Trucks
- Medium/Mid-Size Trucks
- Heavy Trucks
- Tractor Trucks
By End Use
- Domestic
- Exports
By Propulsion Type
- Gasoline
- Diesel
- Electric
CHINA TRUCK MARKET SIZE AND FORECAST
China truck market is estimated at $XX Billion in 2020. It is estimated to grow at XX% CAGR in the period 2021-2026.
A significant rise of E-commerce is making it one of the fastest-growing mini-truck segments and OEMs are competing in terms of providing good fuel-efficiency and high payload carrying capability.
Chinese trucks have created a lot of demand in the Latin American countries and the Chinese manufacturers have been setting up plants in these countries to assemble the trucks instead of exporting the entire vehicle.
Top players in China will start setting up entire production plants in countries Columbia, Peru, Paraguay and others in order to reduce the overall cost of the vehicle.
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS IN CHINA TRUCK MARKET
- CNHTC’s first pickup model VX7, particularly designed for the high-end market, will be launched by the end of 2021. The vehicle is powered by 2.0T gasoline powered engine and Shengduan 8AT transmission gearbox and can achieve max power of 221 HP
- In May 2021, SAIC Hongyan delivered 1,000 units of electric heavy-duty trucks to Tangshan to transport products from Tangshan Steel. SAIC Hongyan is powered by 282 kwh batteries made by CATL.
- In February, Beiben officially deployed its first 100 kW hydrogen fuel cell vehicle in Baotou, Inner Mongolia. The vehicle is jointly developed by Beiben and Shanghai Jiaotong University.
- The truck will be used for urban sanitisation and the vehicle is able to cover 350km after complete refill of hydrogen
- In January 2021, Huawei and Trunk, Chinese autonomous truck start-up, entered into a partnership for the R&D and market promotion of the products related to smart port.
CHINA TRUCK MARKET POWERTRAIN TRENDS
The light trucks have 3.5T-8T GVW, vehicle length shorter than 7 meters, two axles, and with the engine power nearly 80-160 kW (the OEMs use the Japanese or Cummins engines on their Light commercial vehicles).
The medium-duty trucks have 7.5T-12.0T GVW, vehicle length shorter than 13 meters, two to three axles, and with the engine power between 80-140kW.
The Heavy trucks have GVW above 14T, vehicle length longer than 13 meters, with more than three axles with the engine power up to 500HP (Many vehicles use the Cummins engines with higher engine power).
| FAW J6M | FOTON AUMAN ETX Series | SHACMAN M3000 | SINOTRUK HOWO | |
| Displacement (L) | 8.6L | 9.726L | 7.5L | 9.726L |
| Min power (hp) | 260 | 250 | 210 | 260 |
| Max horsepower | 320 | 340 | 300 | 336 |
| Emission standard | China 4, 5, 6 | China 5 | China 4, 5 | China 4 |
| Transmission type | Manual | Manual | Manual | Manual |
| Gears | 10F+2R | (9F+1R) | (9F+1R) | (10F+2R) |
COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE
Unlike the bus market in China, the truck market is more consolidated and there are about 15-16 major players.
In terms of light trucks, the top 10 players accounted for ~90% of sales in 2021 and top 5 of them account for 62% of that.
Foton, Dongfeng and JAC are the top 3 players in the light trucks segment. These 3 cumulatively account for 42% of sales volume, with Foton being the market leader with XX% share.
In the heavy trucks segment the top 10 players account for ~99% of the overall volume. Out of which top 5 players alone account for ~88% of the sales.
FAW Jeifang, Sinotruck and Dongfeng are the market leaders in the heavy trucks segment. The top 3 players account for 66% of the sales volume and FAW Jeifang is the market leader with XX% share.
COMPANY PROFILES
- Foton
- Dongfeng
- SInotruck
- Great Wall
- Chang’an
- JMC
- FAW Jeifang
- SHACMAN
- Hongyan
- Dayun
- SAIC Maxus
- Feidi
- Jiebei
- XCMG
