Guess who’s climbing the global truck-building ladder?

JINAN CITY, CHINA — The second-largest truck maker in the world is now the China National Heavy Duty Truck Group (CNHTC).

The biggest is still Daimler. But this week, when the president of CNHTC Cai Dong wheeled the 120,000th truck of the year off the assembly line, he remarked that the vehicle marked a 11.2-percent year-on-year output growth for the company, adding that it’s a remarkable achievement, especially given the global economic downturn.

CNHTC is an outgrowth of the Jinan Automobile Works which started in 1935.

For the first 20 years of its operation, CNHTC only built truck parts but in the mid 1950s began producing heavy-duty trucks and now produces a full range of vehicles.

The announcement about CNHTC’s status comes almost one month after Volvo pulled out of a truck-building joint venture in that country.

In 2003, Volvo purchased 50 percent of the Jinan Huawo Truck Corporation.

But on November 16, the Sweden-based truck builder said the joint venture "for various reasons did not become the business success that both parties had expected," so sold its 50 percent of the venture to CNHTC.

Neither side disclosed the financial details of the deal, which is subject to approval by Chinese authorities. 


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