Heavy truck sales in August decreased by 8% year-on-year.
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Heavy truck companies should increase product development efforts, implement differentiated strategies, and increase product gross margins.
The heavy-duty truck industry has gradually matured and will gradually weaken with the fluctuation of policies and regulations. In 2000 and 2001, the growth rate of consumption of heavy trucks was 96.25% and 108.25%, respectively (smaller base); in 2005, the growth rate of heavy truck consumption was -36.82%. Heavy truck sales in August 2008 decreased by 8.74% year-on-year. At present, heavy trucks are greatly affected by policies and regulations. As the industry gradually normalizes, the impact will gradually weaken.
Information: Introduction to the development of the top 10 heavy truck manufacturers in the domestic market (Figure)
Increasing R&D investment is the only channel for sustainable improvement of profitability. As the technical strength of the heavy truck industry is increasing slowly, the barriers to entry of the industry are low, and the market structure of the industry has been transformed from oligopoly to monopolistic competition. In 2002, the combined market share of the first two companies (FAW Group and Dongfeng Automobile) was 82.82%; In 2007, the combined market share of the first two companies (China National Heavy Duty Truck Group and China FAW Group) was 40.38%. In the face of the strong cost transferability of multinational companies, the profitability of vehicle companies has gradually declined. Only by increasing R&D investment will it be possible to ensure a sustainable increase in profitability; by implementing a differentiation strategy, we will further enhance the technical strength of the mechanical system and obtain higher gross profit margins.
Domestic demand is affected by the increase in new fixed asset investment in the construction industry. Through the quantitative analysis of investment in fixed assets, investment in real estate development, road transportation conditions, and consumption of heavy trucks, we found that the consumption of heavy trucks has the highest correlation with the newly added fixed assets investment in the construction industry, which is 0.89; and the completion of real estate development. The investment has a significant correlation with the newly-started housing area, which is 0.88; the correlation with the road freight volume is also strong, at 0.87. We believe that domestic demand will be greatly affected by the investment in newly added fixed assets in the construction industry. The bottom line of the industry's decline will mainly depend on whether fixed asset investment can maintain steady growth.
Export growth is difficult to maintain, and steady growth can be expected. In 2007, the proportion of heavy truck exports to total sales was 11.84%. In January-August 2008, the export volume of heavy trucks accounted for 19.62% of the total exports of commercial vehicles; the main export models were >20 tons of diesel trucks, dump trucks and semi-trailers, which accounted for 48.72%, 20.00% and 21.86%, respectively; most were Export to emerging market economies. Taking into account the similarities of various objective environments between China and emerging market economies, China's products are very suitable for these countries. When the world economy slows down, some high-end demand will shift to relatively low-end product demand, so that the steady growth of exports is still worth the wait. We expect sales growth for the year 2008 and 2009 to be 20% and 0% respectively.
Maintain the "neutral" rating for the heavy truck industry. In the context of the lack of overall investment opportunities in the industry, we recommend focusing on the leading companies in the industry because they are more likely to survive the cyclical fluctuations in the industry and usher in a new round of development opportunities. We propose to pay attention to heavy truck leading company China National Heavy Duty Truck and automotive electronics company Weifu Tech. The risks of the industry are mainly reflected in the development risks of overseas markets, systematic risks of the broader market, risks of fluctuating raw material prices, and industry risks caused by the declining growth rates of fixed asset investments.