After Dongfeng Motor Company Limited (DFL) fails to get the sales champion in light truck market for years, president of DFL Kimiyasu Nakamura is setting out to make a turn in this sector.
Currently, DFL's divisions are facing quite different results—HD truck sector has been leading ahead, but the light commercial vehicle of DFAC is declining.
Dongfeng Motor's fiscal report shows that in 2012, the business revenue is 17.7 billion yuan, declining by 17.26% year on year; the net profit belonged to corporate shareholders is 21.7342 million yuan, dropping by 94.82%. In the first half of 2013, the net profit is estimated to decline by more than 50%.
At the same time, under the pressure of JAC, Jinbei and other competitors, Dongfeng's position in the market is not stable. According to China Automotive Information Net, in Apr., May, and Jun., Dongfeng light truck ranks No. 3, No.4 and No.2 respectively. Many years ago, however, Dongfeng has been in the second place.
Kimiyasu Nakamura clearly knows that only a balanced development of different divisions can make the company remain stable. DFL is planning to increase the sales volume to 2.3 million units with market share rising to 10% from 7.07% in the coming two years.
In Jan. 2013, DFL announced to strip MD and HD truck business. Hence, DFL has two business divisions: passenger vehicles of Dongfeng Nissan and light commercial vehicle of DFAC. However, Kimiyasu Nakamura is clearly not satisfied with the sales performance of the two divisions. In his opinion, the key to a balanced development is whether passenger vehicles in top three and light commercial vehicle in top two. The reason for this is the passenger vehicle has come to a normal track of development but the light commercial vehicle needs more support.
"As the sales performance of light commercial vehicle is not as expected, I will put more efforts on this part," said by Kimiyasu Nakamura, "we will send professional experts from Nissan and introduce advanced management methods and tools."
