Sinotruck sales boom in Q1

China National Heavy Duty Truck Group Corp (Sinotruck), one of the nation's largest truck producers, manufactured and sold more than15, 000 heavy duty trucks in March, booking a new industry record in monthly production.

In the first three months, the company sold 32,586 heavy duty trucks, a year-on-year rise of 41%. Sales in the period rose more than 40% to RMB 10.6 billion and exports also climbed to US$100 million.

The company attributed its good sales performance to the efforts on technology improvement and a robust demand from both domestic and overseas markets. Only in the first quarter of 2008, up to RMB 500 million has been injected in technology improvement to boost capacity.

Rising prices of some materials such as steel and stricter environmental requirements in many countries have imposed pressure on the company. It is taking actions to efficiently cut down costs and keep its product price stable, it said.

For this year, it targets to sell at least 125,000 units and realize sales of RMB 45 billion.