China Trucks In South-east Asia

11038 Views 15 Replies 6 Participants Last post by ismathali, Jul 12, 2007

chinoy54

Discussion Starter · Dec 1, 2006

Hi to all. Newbie here. Just last year, we began importing & distributing Yuejin & Foton light trucks in the Philippines. Long dominated by Japanese name brands-Mitsubishi & Isuzu specifically, we are facing an uphill battle in our efforts to sucessfully introduce Chinese brands in the local market. Our one great advantage is price-in direct comparison, specs-wise, the equivalent Japanese model is about 80% more. I'm looking for other members who may have taken the plunge & started introducing Chinese brands into their market, or those who have some idea of how well or badly Chinese trucks are doing in their markets. Please share your experience in this. Since june, 2005, we have sold a total of 245 units, way below our target of 800 units/year. We face some quality issues especially w/Yuejin trucks-brake problems & electricals, but to Yuejin's credit, they have been very responsive regarding prompt warranty actions. Enclosing some pics of units we have sold.

Looking forward to some feedback.

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dragin

· #2 · Dec 1, 2006

Welcome Chinoy.

Good luck with your new Chinese truck sales venture. Yes, there are folks here at the forum, that will give you some good input I'm sure. The North American Wuzheng rep for example.

Daimler Chrysler has just purchased a 24% stake in Beiqi Foton and so over the long term that should help you.

Yuejin's passenger car arm, Nanjing Auto, is ramping up for volume car exports so hopefully that will have a corporate spill over effect and bring quality up closer to global standards.

WuzhengNA

· #3 · Dec 1, 2006

chinoy54 said:
Hi to all. Newbie here. Just last year, we began importing & distributing Yuejin & Foton light trucks in the Philippines. Long dominated by Japanese name brands-Mitsubishi & Isuzu specifically, we are facing an uphill battle in our efforts to sucessfully introduce Chinese brands in the local market. Our one great advantage is price-in direct comparison, specs-wise, the equivalent Japanese model is about 80% more. I'm looking for other members who may have taken the plunge & started introducing Chinese brands into their market, or those who have some idea of how well or badly Chinese trucks are doing in their markets. Please share your experience in this. Since june, 2005, we have sold a total of 245 units, way below our target of 800 units/year. We face some quality issues especially w/Yuejin trucks-brake problems & electricals, but to Yuejin's credit, they have been very responsive regarding prompt warranty actions. Enclosing some pics of units we have sold.

Looking forward to some feedback.

Welcome! Introductions of new brand-names in established markets is fun,isn't it?

Seriously, although you don't get into much detail, you have the right ideas -

Price attracts, service keeps. Instill & understand the consumer's expectations, and exceed them.

Every distributor we have is required to have at least one extra of each model for no other reason than to exchange. A customer is unhappy or unwilling to wait for a repair, or they feel it is a huge problem, we exchange trucks. It has not happened much, but you should see the customers face!

Service, service, service, service. Spend no less than 10% of gross sales on follow-up, service, talking to buyers.

Enough already, or I'll just keep going. Good Luck!

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chinoy54

Discussion Starter · #4 · Dec 1, 2006

thanks for the words of encouragement, guys. yuejin motors was recently absorbed into NAC in that merger? sometime in sept. w/ NAVECO, so i am hoping that we get a model shake-up. one of my biggest concerns, marketing-wise is the almost non-existent marketing support coming from our chinese principals. for instance, a list of big corporate accounts in china is not available. we can tell our prospects that yuejin & foton trucks are running in the tens of thousands in china, but we can't tell them who are using them. if i get even 2% of a fleet user w/international name recognition, say a DHL, BAYER, etc., i would very quickly put together a press kit for dealers & distributors. does anyone in this forum know of big corporations in china that have yuejin or foton trucks in their fleet?

i agree entirely w/ your strategy, wuzhang. in fact, we have set up mobile service teams to visit our fleetowners on a regular basis & solve warranty issues at the customer's service shop. we have loaners available for our dealers for their clients, & we even have a dedicated customer care specialist who does nothing but call our customers on a regular basis to monitor customer satisfaction.

speaking of customer's expectations, the one question that our prospects keep asking is-can i expect to keep your chinese truck in operation as long as my japanese truck? we are talking at least seven years here. how do you answer this question, knowing full well that longevity is not one of chinese products' strong suit.

thanks again, guys for the time & effort.

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WuzhengNA

· #5 · Dec 1, 2006

chinoy54 said:
speaking of customer's expectations, the one question that our prospects keep asking is-can i expect to keep your Chinese truck in operation as long as my Japanese truck? we are talking at least seven years here. how do you answer this question, knowing full well that longevity is not one of Chinese products' strong suit.

Two ways -

One, the drive train between our trucks in China and those imported to North America is completely different - much larger engine, overbuilt. Average life cycle acceptable in China is not acceptable in North America.

Two, we apply a ridiculously long warranty (for this size truck - commercial) 3-year/36k unlimited, with an available 10 year/200k unlimited. Why? To make that question completely irrelevant

Windy

· #6 · Dec 2, 2006

Welcome Chinoy54,

"the one question that our prospects keep asking is-can i expect to keep your chinese truck in operation as long as my japanese truck? we are talking at least seven years here."

There is a nice story here:
http://www.nanqi.com.cn/docc/news/news1.asp?auto_id=1668

of a Yuejin truck bought in 1997 thats just reached 600,000 Km "without an overhaul" (major service), I think it says that it belongs to Zhen Lin Monastery.

I have not noticed many well known major companys as customers, although for their "special vehicles" one well known and significant customer is the UN (United Nations) for piece keeping activities.

If I see anything suitable then I will post it here

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chinoy54

Discussion Starter · #7 · Dec 2, 2006

WuzhengNA said:
Two ways -

One, the drive train between our trucks in China and those imported to North America is completely different - much larger engine, overbuilt. Average life cycle acceptable in China is not acceptable in North America.

thanks, wuzheng for the reply. i was afraid of that. w/ the exception of the yj1038-2.5ton payload w/ a 3.6 liter engine delivering 89ps, the other models in our yuejin line are equipped w/ small engines as compared w/japanese models, although 1.5-2.5t payload trucks are app. 70% of our potential market. north america may not be the right market to compare ours to-i was thinking thailand, vietnam, malaysia, etc. as comparable markets. maybe its time to have a serious talk w/yuejin to beef up the drive train & suspension. thanks for the tip.

thanks, windy for the news extract. i know that website, & visit it every now & then. i don't read chinese, so i just look at the pics.

does it say what model it is? don't have a translator, so all i get is gibberish.

Windy

· #8 · Dec 4, 2006

chinoy54 said:
thanks, windy for the news extract. i know that website, & visit it every now & then. i don't read chinese, so i just look at the pics. does it say what model it is? don't have a translator, so all i get is gibberish.

Chinese = gibberish?

Well try the english version:

http://www.yuejin-truck.com/html-en/news-details.php?news_id=4

Same story although the words don't seem quite the same.

If you are stuck for a translator, you can always use google translate. It still needs translating from google translate speak but at least its not 100% gibberish!

chinoy54

Discussion Starter · #9 · Dec 4, 2006

thanks, windy. the same site also had the news item of the NAC absorption of yuejin motors. some naveco people are coming to visit us this week, so we will get more info on the new direction for yuejin trucks.

Windy

· #10 · Dec 5, 2006

"the NAC absorption of yuejin motors"

I don't think thats quite what happened. My understanding is that the Yuejin Brand was one of NAC's susbsiduaries with the Nanjing - IVECO (Fiat) joint venture being a second subsiduary; Yuejin has now been merged into the existing Nanjing IVECO joint venture to form a rather larger joint venture and I suspect freeing off some cash (or at least the need to spend cash) for NAC to use on MG and allowing Yuejin to modernise its models to newer IVECO based models. To confuse things, as well as the Yuejin Brand there is a company called Yuejin through which NAC traces its roots back to the 1940's and now is part owner of NAC and all its subsiduaries.

Maybe you will be able to explain it all to us properly after your meeting! :lol:

chinoy54

Discussion Starter · #11 · Dec 5, 2006

sure! i'll post the info that we'll get from the naveco people. meantime, i'd like to get your feedback on another of our chinese product-the foton forland. we are starting off with the 3/4th tonner 'minitruck' to compete with mitsubishi's local version of the old l300. pics attached.

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boogiecat

· #12 · Dec 7, 2006

Hi Chinoy54,are you from Commercial Motors Corporation,the distributors of Foton and Yuejin trucks in the Philippines or are you an independent dealer like Starblit(my neighbor is also a dealer of those trucks and they're shop is called China Motors in U.N Aveune Paco)?

Anyway i saw your products and i should say its good.:thumb: I wonder why your company stopped bringing the Geely brand here(H.A1 remember?),anyway there are any plans of bringing the Chery brand instead?Sorry if i asked to many questions..

chinoy54

Discussion Starter · #13 · Dec 10, 2006

yes, boogierat i'm from commercial motors. both starbilt & china motors were dealers in the initial introduction in june, 2005, but they have since fallen by the wayside. we aborted our plans to market the geely hq due to quality issues w/ that particular model. we have no plans in so far as cars are concerned, but are looking for vans & pick-ups in china.

i'm glad you approve of our products. we have added the nj1038 to our lineup in aug. & we are currently assembling the first production batch of the foton forland. i would be happy to give you a tour of our assembly facilities in laguna. e-mail me & i'll make the arrangements. meantime, pics of the forland on the assembly line attached.

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boogiecat

· #14 · Dec 18, 2006

So you're from Commercial Motors,anyway i really like the quality of the Foton and Yuejin light trucks though i wish your group will market this one aggresively in our country cause this product deserves some good sales...Anyway i wish your company would bring us Filipino consumers more Vans and pickups(also please import ot manufacture some buses here!) from China....:thumb:

chinoy54

Discussion Starter · #15 · Dec 21, 2006

thanks for the post, boogiecat. did i call you "boogierat" in my last post? sorry for that. i just recalled someone who used that moniker sometime ago. anyway, chinese busses are in the country in a big way. kinglong, golden dragon, & now higer busses are already running on the road. what do you think of an isuzu-engined double-cab pick-up w/ all options except automatic transmission selling for php650,000. do you think this will sell?

ismathali

· #16 · Jul 12, 2007

Dear Sir,
We are leading car importers in Sri Lanka and has been for 20 years. We import only from Japanese and Singapore. But recently we found we can boomup Chinese vehicles also in our country. We actually need small trucks and commercial vans specially. Meanwhile we can import big trucks and small cars too. First we actually like to go for a small trucks and vans. We need to find out a reliable Chinese Automobile manufactures and act as their agent in Sri Lanka.
Thanks.

ISMATH ALI
+94-777-885566, +94-717-346407
Managing Director
ALI TRADERS PVT LTD.
86, Stace Road, Colombo-14.Sri Lanka.
Tel: +94-114-548015, +94-112-394445
E-mail:[email protected]
Website: alitraders.com

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