On July 16, 2009, the global truck giant Germany MAN signed a series of legal documents with China National Heavy Duty Truck Group, a leading company in China's heavy-duty truck industry, and reached long-term strategic cooperation at the technical and capital level. MAN, while granting exclusive technology licenses to Sinotruk, also spent 560 million euros to obtain a stake of 25% plus one share in Sinotruk. As the second largest foreign investment case in China’s automotive industry history, the cooperation mode of the transaction attracted attention, highlighting the characteristics of the Chinese heavy-duty truck (commercial vehicle) market that is different from the passenger car market and the adjustment of the corresponding cooperation model between Chinese and foreign companies. .
Some people say that in 2009, it was a year of joint venture and year of commercial vehicles in China, and a series of events that took place could be included in the milestones in the history of China and the world’s automobile industry. It is true that the Chinese commercial vehicle market in 2009 was indeed extraordinary.
Heavy truck giants favor Chinese market
According to statistics, at present, China's heavy truck market has an annual sales of about 650,000 vehicles. If it is produced in large quantities, 800,000 vehicles will not be a problem. In the next 5 years to 10 years, the production and sales volume will exceed 1 million, which will surpass the total sales of Europe and the United States. The market prospect is bright! The formation of China’s logistics system, expressway network, large-scale transportation system, and construction engineering system not only puts forward a higher technological level for China’s highway logistics and infrastructure projects, but also for heavy trucks in terms of emissions, safety, and energy conservation. Claim. Therefore, today's consumption in China's heavy truck market is no longer a transportation vehicle in the sense of highways in China in the last century.
In 2008, the output of trucks with more than 7 tons in China accounted for 29.7% of the world's medium- and heavy-duty trucks, becoming the largest market in the world. At the same time, as a developing country, China will still have a large number of project construction in the next few years, which will make the heavy truck market in China more important in the world, and international heavy truck manufacturers are more interested in the Chinese market.
Due to the financial crisis, foreign heavy truck giants have been hit hard this year. Iman, for example, reduced its output in 2009 by 30% and stopped production for more than a month. In this situation, international heavy truck giants have thrown red hydrangea to Chinese companies.
The first is the joint venture between Beiqi Foton and Daimler-Benz. The two parties agreed to choose Fukuda's medium-to-heavy truck products for strategic cooperation, and may extend such cooperation to Foton Bus Products and other fields. Followed by FAW and the Volvo Group's Volvo Penta to contact the company, the capital of up to 10 billion in the acquisition once completed, FAW will have world-class advanced commercial vehicles, large-scale diesel engine equipment, greatly enhance Truck business capabilities.
This is followed by a cooperation agreement between Sinotruk and German MAN. The two parties will cooperate in the manufacturing, quality control, sales and after-sales service of complete vehicles and Euro III, Euro IV and Euro V engines. Among them, China National Heavy Duty Truck will exclusively enjoy the MAN-licensed vehicle and engine technology in the domestic market. In addition, China National Heavy Duty Truck will also introduce MAN's management experience and quality assurance system to improve operating capabilities and management efficiency, so that China's heavy truck gradually and then quickly to international standards.
This is followed by the cooperation between JAC and Caterpillar and Navistar, the two automotive giants in cash and technology. The cooperation is mainly concentrated in the areas of medium and heavy trucks and Euro IV and Euro V emission standard engines. Caterpillar and Navistar are mainly in the form of cash plus technology. The joint venture company is expected to be officially established this year.
Cooperative products have more advantages
It is understood that at present, most of the heavy truck companies in foreign countries launch products for the high-end market. They have strong manufacturing and production capabilities for Euro IV and Euro V gasoline engines and diesel engines, plus a strong chassis research and development capability, which will fill relevant domestic Technical blanks in the field.
China National Heavy Duty Truck Board Chairman Ma Chun-chi said that as long as the foreign engine and the vehicle's advanced technology are digested, absorbed and reinvented in the joint venture process, the core competitiveness of China's heavy truck companies will be greatly enhanced. The cooperation between MAN and China National Heavy Duty Truck Corporation reflects their mutual confidence and interest in the future growth of China's heavy truck market. MAN, which ranks second in the heavy truck industry in Europe and third in the world, has been slow to invest in the Chinese market, lagging behind major international competitors Daimler-Benz and Volvo. Both Daimler-Benz and Volvo have actually invested in establishing joint ventures with Chinese partners to invest in the Chinese market. Although MAN had a technology transfer agreement with Shaanxi Auto, Zhejiang Neoplan and Others, it was the first time for direct investment.
For China National Heavy Duty Truck, as the domestic industry leader, through in-depth cooperation with MAN, you can take the initiative in future industry development. The implementation of the 2008 China III standard foreshadowed the trend of more environmentally friendly development in the heavy truck industry in China, which puts higher requirements on the technology of the vehicle platform and engine. The cooperation agreement with MAN took MAN's world-leading use rights of the production technologies of Euro III, Euro IV and Euro V engines into the scope of cooperation and solved the problems of the next three generations of environmentally friendly truck production technologies of China National Heavy Duty Truck.
Chinese and foreign companies take what they need
Experts believe that the new model of coexistence of dual-brands between China and foreign countries may become the mainstream model for domestic heavy truck joint ventures. At present, China's heavy-duty truck products have been recognized by the world in terms of quality and price, but brand building is still lacking. This has directly led to the relative concentration of customers of China's heavy-duty truck products, and can not be favored by large international buyers. To this end, we will jointly develop dual brands and reduce costs and increase brands through localized production. This will become a new direction for joint venture heavy truck companies.
Judging from several recent Sino-foreign cooperation projects that have received considerable attention in the industry, the Chinese side values ​​the advantage that foreign parties have in the electronic control technology of complete vehicles and engines. Electronic control technology is not only a technical bottleneck faced by domestic truck companies in the process of upgrading emission standards, but also a common weakness in domestic truck companies.
For self-owned brand truck companies that are eager to acquire advanced technology, once they receive foreign support and break through the technical bottlenecks, coupled with a deep understanding of the domestic market and the low-cost advantages of the local labor force, the products launched will inevitably become more competitive. This is one of the reasons why domestic heavy truck companies have to pay high attention.
Domestic heavy trucks face reshuffle
In response to the joint venture of domestic companies, a truck company manager in southwestern China stated that some mainstream heavy truck companies have deepened cooperation with international giants, which has caused great pressure on us. In his opinion, the products of Mercedes-Benz, Volvo, Mann, and other international heavy truck giants are not terrible, because practice has proved that in the domestic market, self-owned heavy trucks have a clear competitive advantage. With the arrival of a new round of joint ventures and cooperation between Chinese and foreign heavy truck companies, combining domestic and foreign products with competitive advantages into the domestic market will really put pressure on local companies.
Prior to this round of Sino-foreign joint ventures and cooperation, the domestic independent brands had roughly the same level of technology. In recent years, in particular, domestic truck companies have improved their product technology and have significantly improved the overall level of products. Even in the competition in the first camp of heavy truck market, Steyr platform products still have their own advantages and difficulties compared with heavy trucks such as FAW Jiefang and Dongfeng Commercial Vehicles.
With the upgrading of emission standards, especially the application of electronic control technology in the field of heavy trucks, domestic heavy truck companies generally encounter bottlenecks in further upgrading of technology. Compared with internationally renowned heavy trucks, there is a gap in core technologies. As a result, some truck companies began to actively seek cooperation with foreign companies, and the relatively balanced domestic market structure will be broken and they will face reshuffling. Just as the chairman of China National Heavy Duty Truck Group Ma Chunji talked about cooperation with Man, he said: “After introducing the advanced technologies of the MAN engine and the vehicle, we will make the core competitive advantages of CNHTC more apparent through digestion, absorption and innovation. In this cooperation, we have obtained the right to use MAN's production technology from Euro III to Euro V engines, which will help Sinotruk solve the problem of the next three generations of environmentally friendly truck production technologies."
View related topics: Joint venture hot car
Welder,Hot Sale Welder,Welding Accessories,Cheep Welding Accessories
Xingyu Welding Equipment Co.,Ltd. , http://www.rqwelding.com