China's heavy-duty truck sales down 72% in Jan

Shanghai, February 18 (Gasgoo.com) China's heavy truck sales fell down by 72% in January 2009 due to the impact of a slowing domestic economy and global financial crisis. 

Sales of heavy duty trucks (gross vehicle weight greater than 40 tons) in the Chinese market in January were down 72.15 percent in January from the same month in 2008 to 10,851 units.

China National Heavy Duty Truck Group or Sinotruk ranked No.1 in terms of January sales with 4,065 units sold, followed by Shaanxi Automobile Group and Dongfeng Motor, with sales of 1,203 and 1,194 trucks sold respectively. 
      
Ma Chunji, president of Sinotruk, predicted that the truck industry will see further slowdown in the first quarter this year, but overall the industry will recover in the second quarter.

China total vehicle sales -- including cars, buses and trucks --fell 14.35% year-on-year to 735,500 units in January and was off 0.83% month-on-month, figures from China Association of Automobile Manufactures showed.

Below is a table for heavy duty truck sales in January. 

HDT makers                              Jan sales  (units)         
-Sinotruk                                     4,065
-Shaanxi Automobile Group   1,203
-Dongfeng Motor                       1,194
-Beiqi Foton Motor Co              1,190
-FAW Group                               1,086

No percentage comparisons were provided.