Sinotruk on a charge!

July 24, 2024

In the next two to three years, Sinotruk International will have an assembly facility in South Africa. While not revealing which trucks it will process through the new plant, the company is also looking at expanding beyond the current medium and extra-heavy products it offers to the local market. COLIN WINDELL reports from the company’s stand at the Big 5 Construct Expo.

Dominating a large corner of the expo at Gallagher Convention Centre, the Sinotruk stand drew plenty of interested spectators while I sat at the conveniently located coffee shop and chatted with Michael Man, country manager for the Africa Division of the company based in Jinan, in China’s Shandong province.

Outside of the logistics and construction industry, the Sinotruk name may not yet be well known. But, to give it some perspective, it has a 50% share of the Chinese truck market and it has been China’s number one truck exporter for the past 19 years.

The company’s African footprint includes a joint venture assembly operation in Nigeria with a capacity of 7,000 trucks a year with sales into Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Malawi, as well as an intention to have another assembly operation up and running soon in Kenya.

Man explained that Sinotruk was at the show because there is considerable interest in those vehicles suitable for various tasks within the construction industry. However, he was quick to emphasise that the company has a full range of truck offerings.

“Right now, we are offering only heavy and extra-heavy trucks in South Africa, as we have not yet homologated the medium and smaller truck ranges. But we will be doing that and introducing them in due course,” he expanded.

“Sinotruk is constantly evolving and examining its product mix. In China, we are working on trucks that will drive autonomously within the port environment, as well as battery electric options and hybrid versions,” he continued.

“For the South African market in the construction industry most of the engine options are Euro 2, with the long-haul road trucks running on Euro 3 engines. But we can supply other options on demand and, in fact, have a customer who has taken delivery of nine units fitted with Euro 5 engines,” Man revealed.

“We know times are quite tough here in South Africa and every transport operator is looking to the very best total cost of operation figures. So, we will go out of our way to ensure we can supply exactly what that customer wants or needs,” he added. “We are watching that closely and we look to be able to provide well produced trucks with high levels of standard specification, both in terms of luxury and safety, at really competitive prices.”

Man said he was estimating an extra-heavy market of around 15,000 units for South Africa in 2024 and Sinotruk is looking to have 10% of that. “Things have been constrained in the buildup to the elections. Now that has happened, I hope the new government will invest in the infrastructure of the country as well as doing what it can to attract new foreign investment – all of which will boost the economy and help to cut those very high unemployment numbers,” he elaborated.

In the main, however, he believes the South African market to be quite stable and that this will continue through 2024, noting: “Perhaps we can look forward to reasonable growth going into next year. That will be good for all of us.”