Sinotruck makes and sells 32,586 heavy trucks in Q1.

Shanghai, April 3 (Gasgoo.com) Following its production and sales of 100,000 vehicles in 2007, Sinotruck continues in the first quarter of this year to maintain the momentum of rapid growth. In the first three months of 2008, Sinotruck produced and sold 32,586 heavy trucks, an increase of 41% over the same period of 2007, and the sales earnings hit RMB 10.6 billion ($1.51 billion), with its export volume exceeding $100,000, also 40% more than one year earlier. 

Sinotruck, one of China's largest heavy-truck makers, manufactured and sold 15,000 heavy trucks in March 2008, creating a new high in monthly production and sales in China's heavy truck segment. The company has set its goal to make and sell 125,000-135,000 vehicles in 2008 and to gross RMB 45 billion in sales. To achieve this target, Sinotruck started to enhance its whole portfolio of products and to implement the energy efficiency strategy in late 2007.

The truck maker's new models were well received soon after their launch in the home market at the beginning of 2008. In January and February, despite the natural disasters in some parts of China, 17,500 units of these models were sold and 31,249 units were ordered. The demand for Sinotruck's vehicles has now begun to exceed the supply. The company took effective measures to cope with the disruption in the supply links of auto parts caused by the snowstorms in southern China in the first two months of 2008. 

Sinotruck began marketing its Hong Kong IPO in November 2007, to use the funds it raises to boost its manufacturing capacity by more than half by 2010. The truck maker aims to turn its funding advantage into a driver of faster growth, broader expansion and stronger competitiveness. In the first quarter of this year, Sinotruck invested RMB 500,000 in technical innovation and revamp to boost its capacity and technologies for greater achievements in the future.

Sinotruck has a truck-making joint venture with Volvo, the world's second-largest truck manufacturer. The Chinese truck maker's two engine production lines in Hangzhou and Jinan in eastern China have an annual capacity of 200,000 units, and the third assembly line of its subsidiary Jinan Truck Company has increased the assembly capacity by 50%.