According to the latest data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, the commercial vehicle market declined month-on-month in April and increased slightly year-on-year. It can be said that the market "battle" of the major mainstream commercial vehicle companies has reached the state of "pulling the bow and full strings" in April, and the two major "heavy truck" giants of Jiefang and Sinotruk have sold more than 20,000 vehicles in a single month, one is the domestic medium and heavy truck "1 brother", and the other is the overlord of the overseas market, who is most hopeful to have the last laugh? We judge one by one from overseas exports, NG, new energy and other market segments——
In April, the commercial vehicle market decreased month-on-month and rose year-on-year
Overall, the demand for commercial vehicles in April was lower than expected, with overall sales reaching 357,000 units, down 22% month-on-month and 2.8% year-on-year. Industry authorities judge that this phenomenon is due to the overdraft of part of the demand due to the inventory clearance and price reduction promotion activities of domestic dealers in March, coupled with the release of the "Action Plan for Promoting the Trade-in of Consumer Goods", which caused consumers to wait and see, resulting in a certain delay in demand in April.
Jiefang and Sinotruk sold more than 20,000 medium and heavy trucks
In terms of medium- and heavy-duty trucks: the medium- and heavy-duty truck market fell by 26.6% month-on-month in April. Sinotruk Group and FAW Group both sold more than 20,000 units in a single month, of which 24,000 were Sinotruk, with a market share of 25.4%; Jiefang 22,000 units, with a share of 23.1%, occupied the top two positions in the list of medium and heavy-duty trucks. Shaanxi Automobile Group and Dongfeng Group also sold more than 10,000 medium and heavy trucks in April, selling 14,000 and 11,000 respectively, accounting for 15.3% and 11.9% of the market share. Beiqi Foton sold nearly 8,000 medium and heavy trucks, ranking fifth in the industry. The total sales of the top five companies from January to April reached 348,000 units, accounting for 87% of the medium- and heavy-duty truck market.
The overseas market has stabilized, and the leading enterprises have obvious advantages
Overseas markets: Commercial vehicle exports totaled 74,000 units in April, reflecting a 4.2% m/m decrease and a 24% y/y increase. Sinotruk's exports have been above 10,000 units for four consecutive months, accounting for 46.5% of commercial vehicle exports. Jiefang ranked second, with an average monthly export of about 5,000 vehicles, with a market share of 19.1%. In addition to a slight phased decline in the Spring Festival, Shaanxi Automobile's monthly export volume also stabilized at around 5,000 vehicles, with a market share of 17.7%. Dongfeng exports an average of about 2,000 vehicles per month, with a market share of 7.4%. Different from the domestic market, the performance of the overseas market has stabilized, and the total export volume of the top four companies has accounted for ninety percent of the market, and these leading companies have a very high market concentration and significant competitive advantages, leading the export business of commercial vehicles in the mainland.
In the domestic NG market, Jiefang sits firmly in the top spot
From the perspective of the performance of the NG segment: from January to April, Jiefang was the only car company in the industry with cumulative sales of more than 20,000 units, with cumulative sales of 24,000 units and a market share of 33.6%. And in April, it won the NG market championship again with more than 8,500 vehicles, firmly occupying the top spot in the NG market. Since March, Sinotruk has been aggressively attacking the NG market, with NG sales exceeding 6,700 units in April, with cumulative sales exceeding 18,000 units and a market share of 25.9%. Dongfeng and Shaanxi Automobile's NG medium- and heavy-duty truck sales were flat in April, reaching 3,700 units each, accounting for 14.2% of the segment in the month. Foton's NG medium- and heavy-duty trucks reached 2,300 units in April, with a market share of 8.8%. In the field of natural gas medium and heavy trucks, the TOP5 in the above industries have covered nearly 95% of the NG share.
New energy heavy trucks, activating market increments need to be protracted
Look at the new energy field again: in April, although affected by the national "trade-in" policy, through the sales data, under the market conditions of low freight rates, it is difficult to leverage market demand by relying solely on subsidies. In April, the overall sales of new energy trucks were close to 20,000 units (including medium and heavy trucks + light trucks), down 11% month-on-month from 22,000 units in March. In the sales list of new energy heavy trucks, Sany Group won the first place in the monthly list with 800 vehicles; XCMG sold 759 vehicles in a single month, followed closely behind; FAW Jiefang sold more than 600 vehicles, ranking third in the industry; Shaanxi Automobile Group and Yutong Group ranked fourth and fifth, with sales of 553 and 378 new energy heavy trucks respectively.
To sum up, the medium and heavy truck market was full of gunsmoke in April. If overseas sales are not counted, the hegemony of domestic medium and heavy trucks will still be unshakable; Combined with overseas sales, Sinotruk does occupy a dominant position in the export field. Today, in the deep transformation of the commercial vehicle market, we have also seen that the leading car companies are concentrating on "making up for the weaknesses of the short board and solidifying the advantages of the long board", such as: Jiefang introduced high-end products such as J7 to enhance overseas competitiveness, and strive to achieve a leap in overseas sales growth, and Sinotruk has also made great strides to the NG market. The "competition" of commercial vehicle companies continues, the market has never been a "winning general", it does not matter who can have the last laugh, however, it is hoped that more enterprises can be stimulated to technological innovation and service upgrading, help the healthy development of the industry, and bring higher value to users.