First Auto Works (FAW) is developing world class foundry technology that could give its commercial vehicles a fuel economy advantage in the future.

CHANGSHA, Hunan - Changsha Huantong Automotive Co., Ltd. (Huantong Auto), a subsidiary of Shaanxi Automotive Group (Shaanxi Auto), recently announced its development target for the next five years. On August 6, Sheng Lixing, the company's president, revealed that Huangtong Auto has made plans to produce 50,000 trucks a year by 2015 with annual sales revenue at over ¥12 billion ($1.76 billion).

Shaanxi Fast Gear (Fast Gear), controlled by Weichai Power, has been a dominant leader in the domestic heavy-duty truck transmission market since the company introduced technologies from Eaton back in the 1980s. In recent years, the company has maintained a solid market share at over 80 percent in the heavy-duty truck transmission field. Domestic truck builders regarded Fast Gear transmissions as a standard component, not only because of its reliability and performance, but also due to the truckmakers' lack of transmission making technologies or capacity. However, several leading truck manufacturers have recently launched their in-house transmission projects, in order to achieve a high self-supply rate.

Heavy-duty trucks with 11-liter diesel engines (ranging from 10.5 to 12 liters are regarded as "golden displacement") have beckoned a significant rise on market demand since last October, according to a market insider. Previously, sales of those models were constrained by factors including vehicle price, transport distance in the domestic logistics market, transport volume and efficiency. However, the first half of 2010 has seen a rapid rise on sales of 11-liter trucks.

China sold 196,000 buses (excluding microvans) in the first half of 2010, up 38.82 percent year on year, according to recent data released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM).

GAC-Hino, a joint venture between Guangzhou Automobile Group Corp.

China National Heavy-Duty Truck Corp. (Sinotruk) has increased its sales target for 2010 by 40 percent to 190,000 unit owing to the booming heavy-duty vehicle market in the first half of the year, according to company president Cai Dong at the mid-year sales sum-up meeting held at its headquarters in Jinan, Shandong Province on July 14.

XI'AN - Huanghai Automobile (Huanghai Auto) recently won an order of 200 Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) city buses from Xi'an Public Transportation Corp., marking the largest deal the company has received from the west regions over recent years.

According to CBU-Autostats, in the first five months of 2010, China sold 490,323 heavy-duty trucks (including finished vehicles, semi-tractor trailers, and chassis), up 121.40 percent over the same period in 2009, when 221,466 units were sold.

On June 1, 2010, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) published its draft of Measuring Methods for Fuel Consumption of Medium- and Heavy-Duty Commercial Vehicles (Measuring Methods). This is viewed as the first formal step toward the project's completion since its launch in May 2007. Also on June 1, MIIT began to acquire feedback and suggestions on the draft; this process will remain open until July 15, 2010.