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FAW, Mercedes-Benz Incubate New Truck Base
First Automotive Works (FAW), one of China's top three automakers, is now in talks with Germany's Mercedes-Benz to open a joint venture producing heavy trucks.
The move will help FAW become the world's largest truck manufacturing base, Monday's China Daily quoted Zhu Yanfeng, FAW general manager as saying.
FAW held a ceremony Sunday in this capital city of northeast China's Jilin Province to mark its production of the 3 millionth Jiefang truck. FAW began producing Jiefang trucks in 1956.
FAW produced about 220,000 such type of trucks last year, ranking third after the Mercedes-Benz and Sweden's Volvo Truck Corp. FAW currently controls half of China's domestic truck market.
Medium and heavy trucks will continue to be FAW's most competitive products and the core of the company's business, and FAW aimed to maintain its position in the truck market in the 10th Five Year Plan period (2001-2005), when some of its truck models are expected to increase their market share to 60 percent, according to Zhu.
Analysts say truck sales in China are expected to increase to 1.5 million units by 2005 with the country's expressways extending and the logistics sector growing.
Some world truck providers, such as Japan's Isuzu and Volvo, have either opened joint ventures or are negotiating with Chinese-based companies to jointly produce trucks.
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