Cars

China's special purpose vehicle market to rise rapidly: analyst

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-05-25 13:53

WUHAN: Infrastructure construction in China may push up domestic demand for special purpose motor vehicles, especially construction vehicles and engineering trucks, an industry analyst said.

Secretary-general of the Special Purpose Vehicle Chapter of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) Wang Huanmin said sales of engineering vehicles will grow fastest as expressway construction will boost demand for road construction vehicles, maintenance vehicles, coaches for long distance public transport, and trucks for energy and resources transportation.

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"Road building remains a significant means for China to sustain its economic expansion, and that means giant market opportunities," Wang said at the 2010 China International Forum for Special Purpose Vehicles in Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province, Monday.

According to a Ministry of Communications' blueprint, China will establish a national highway network of 100,000 km by 2020, about the same length as in the United States today.

China has had the second longest network of highways since 2001. It finished construction of 4,719 km of expressways last year and launched the construction of another 16,000 km, as investment in infrastructure grew.

Another giant impetus for the special purpose vehicle market, Wang said, is urbanization.

"As more people move into cities, urban construction and public services must improve. So demand for special vehicles used for sanitation, gardening, telecommunications, police patrols, airport services, commercial transportation and logistics will grow," he said.

The rapid expansion of the logistics industry is also expected to boost the market for vans and semi-trailers, he added.

Statistics from CAAM show over the past decade, China's output of special purpose vehicles ballooned to 1.64 million in 2009 from 180,000 in 2000. The variety of special purpose vehicle, meanwhile, more than tripled to approximately 5,000 in 2009 from 1,337 in 2000.