“During the transaction period, no one buys China Ⅳ-compliant trucks and China Ⅲ-compliant trucks are not allowed to sell,” says by a HD truck dealer of Pang Da Automobile Trade Co., Ltd. The sale of HD trucks is increased beyond expectation because of the anticipation that China Ⅳ may be effective on July 1. In July, however, the company has not sold any standard China Ⅳ-compliant HD truck.
According to statistics of CAAM, in June, the production of HD trucks (including incomplete vehicles and semitrailer tractor) in the whole country is 59,000 units, up by 51.70% over last year; and the sales volume is 75,100 units, up by 50.82% year on year.
Insiders believe the soaring sale in June is because the China Ⅳ is officially effective on July 1, 2013. according to MEP, China Ⅲ-compliant trucks are not allowed to sell. Based on this policy, some manufacturers and regional dealers conduct a new marketing strategy: to make out an invoice before delivering products. Pushed by this overdraft, the HD truck market maintains a good momentum. Nevertheless, such a good momentum will not last long as the money policy is tightened, real economy is fatigue and the manufacturing industry is depressed.
“The sale in the first half year is not as high as it looks, and it will go down inevitably,” Vice General Manager of Shandong Heavy Industry Group Company Limited Tan Xiuqing says. In his opinion, it is less possible to launch new stimulus policy, so the sale will not be good in the second half year. The whole year will at most see a leveling-off sale over last year.
HD truck dealer of Pang Da says: “China Ⅳ-compliant trucks are tens of thousand higher than China Ⅲ-compliant trucks. The use is not easy and oil quality is not good enough. The HD truck market is not good since 2011. Users are very prudent in purchasing trucks.” A variety of users now are holding a wait-and-see attitude due to the uncertainty of China Ⅳ standard. In the short run, the sale of China Ⅳ-compliant trucks will not good.
According to latest report of CEBM Group, the uncertainty of China Ⅳ standard has exerted negative impact on the sale of HD trucks. The growth rate in July will be lower than previous two months, dropping to 30%.
In the report, the survey on HD truck dears shows that more than 80% respondents believe the sale in the first half of July is beyond expectation, while the rest believe it is lower than expectation. For HD truck dealers, there will be a long hard time.
As early as the beginning of this year, head of Commercial Vehicle of CPCA Yang Zaishun once points out that as oil quality cannot reach the standard, the application of China Ⅳ will bring heavy burdens to manufacturers and also to taxpayers.
The biggest problem hindering the implementation of China Ⅳ standard is the oil quality instead of motor’s technology problem. “The compulsory of China Ⅳemission standard will force some companies to take illegal measures, leading to market chaos. This will disturb normal logistic transportation order and bring severe influence to the commercial vehicle market.”
