Natural gas and new energy heavy trucks and export markets have become important trends

In the view of industry insiders, the reason why the heavy truck market was able to stop falling and rebound in April was mainly due to the outstanding performance of the natural gas and new energy heavy truck markets and the strong growth of the export market.

Since last year, the sales volume of the natural gas heavy truck market has been soaring, leading the growth of major sub-sectors. This year, as the oil and gas price gap has further widened, the sales volume of natural gas heavy trucks has set new highs, and the market share has also increased significantly. In April, domestic natural gas heavy truck sales are expected to reach 27,000 units, an increase of more than 170% year-on-year, and the terminal market share is close to 40%. At present, natural gas heavy trucks have become the biggest driving force for the growth of heavy truck sales.

"Nowadays, natural gas heavy trucks are quite popular among users in various places. In the context of the sluggish road freight market and the downward trend in freight rates, natural gas heavy trucks can help truck drivers reduce costs and increase efficiency, and bring more benefits. Recently, in the face of the significant oil and gas price difference, truck drivers in various places have "abandoned oil for gas." "Henan heavy truck dealer Liu Zhiwen said.

While the natural gas heavy-duty truck market is booming, the sales of new energy heavy-duty trucks are also growing rapidly. It is expected that the terminal sales in April will exceed 4,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 75%, far exceeding the growth rate of the new energy passenger car market in the same period. From January to April this year, the sales growth rates of new energy heavy-duty trucks were 152%, 70%, 181%, and 75% respectively. So far, the market has achieved "15 consecutive increases" year-on-year.

In addition to the strong performance of the natural gas and new energy heavy-duty truck markets, the heavy-duty truck export market has also continued to improve. In April this year, heavy-duty truck exports are expected to increase by about 5% year-on-year. Against the background of a rapid decline in exports to the Russian market, it is not easy for my country's heavy-duty truck exports to continue to maintain an overall year-on-year increase.

At present, China's heavy-duty truck exports have changed from quantitative change to qualitative change, which is mainly due to two aspects: on the one hand, the "Belt and Road" initiative has driven the demand for co-construction of national infrastructure, and the rigid demand accumulated in the overseas market has been released in large quantities, which has effectively promoted the growth of my country's heavy-duty truck export sales; on the other hand, the depth and breadth of domestic independent brand truck companies' "going overseas" are further expanding, and the layout of the supply chain and overseas service network is also continuously improving, helping independent brands to continuously improve their competitiveness in the international market.

In addition, it is worth noting that the terminal sales of the heavy-duty truck market in April were much higher than the invoicing sales. This is mainly due to the fact that major automakers stepped up production in the first quarter to meet market demand, resulting in high industry inventory. Against the background of accelerating the digestion of inventory, although the domestic heavy-duty truck terminal sales in April are expected to increase by about 25% year-on-year, the industry's invoicing sales only achieved a year-on-year growth of about 5%.