A Study Of China's Heavy Duty Truck Exports

Global heavy duty truck industry has been growing up rapidly these years. In the development of China's heavy truck industry, independent innovation plays an essential role, which is different from the development of car industry in China. In 1953, FAW produced "Jiefang" truck, China's first indigenous heavyweight vehicle, which quickly earned a reputation. After a development of more than 50 years, many big truck manufacturers have grown up in China, including FAW, China National Heavy Duty Truck Group Co., Ltd. (CNHTC) and Dongfeng Motor Corporation. However, after China's entry to WTO, more and more foreign truck enterprises marched into Chinese market to compete with local enterprises. Chinese market is not owned only by the domestic enterprises, but has also become a part of global market; as a result, Chinese truck enterprises could not just focus on domestic market as before. They must seek a way to enter the global market so that they can survive. They should adopt the strategy of "Introducing in" and "Going out", building global purchasing and distribution net works.Today, the competition is fierce among truck enterprises worldwide. Heavy truck manufacturers in most advanced countries possess large competitive advantages. Moreover, the competition in truck industry mainly focuses on technology and quality, and traditional truck manufacturers in those countries have long history and have earned high reputation around the world; therefore, as a new entrant, China truck enterprises encounter many difficulties in the competition. Although domestic heavy trucks are cheaper than foreign heavy trucks by 30 to 100 percent, there is still a huge gap in market share between China heavy truck enterprises and the foreign truck manufacturers. Thus, Chinese heavy truck enterprises still have a long way to go to catch up with those truck manufacturers in the advanced countries.This paper has analyzed the development of heavy duty truck industry in the world and also in China. It discusses how China's truck manufacturers can gain a powerful position overseas and better compete globally. The paper is composed of six chapters. The first chapter is introduction, presenting the content of the paper and its significance. Following the introduction, a vivid description of world heavy truck industry is given in the second chapter, which includes profiles of several leading heavy duty truck manufacturers worldwide. Then an overview of China's heavy duty trucks industry is presented. It depicts some famous truck manufacturers in China and analyzes export structure of China's heavy trucks. Chapter 4 analyzes export competitiveness of China's heavy duty trucks and Chapter 5 uses the method of SWOT to analyze China's heavy truck exports. In the final chapter, specific suggestions are put forward for China's heavy truck exports.All in all, in the environment of severe competition, only through technology innovation, industry rationalization, independent innovation and improvement of after-sale service, can China's heavy truck industry get a breakthrough development in heavy truck exports.