Jiangsu Chengsen Jiaze Energy Technology Co., Ltd.

Since the beginning of this year, China's heavy-duty truck market has been on fire, and the market for the proportion card market is even more intense. According to the National Ministry of Industry and Information Technology certificate production statistics, in the first eight months of this year, China's natural gas heavy truck cumulative production of 55,300 units, an increase of 5547% over the same period last year's 8545 vehicles. Some mainstream truck companies also saw a significant increase in sales. China National Heavy Duty Truck sold more than 6,000 natural gas heavy trucks, an increase of 823% year-on-year; Foton Daimler's sales increased by 220% year-on-year.
The natural gas heavy truck market has also driven the high-power natural gas engine market. FAW Wuxi Diesel Engine Factory sold a total of 3,265 high-power natural gas engines in the first eight months of this year, an increase of 2431% over the same period of 2016; Weichai Power Co., Ltd. sold 30,000 sets of three high-power natural gas engines: WP10NG, WP12NG, and WP13NG, compared with 2016. Year-on-year growth of 10 times.
Why is the power natural gas heavy truck market so hot?
Policy to boost natural gas heavy trucks
The Regulations on the Administration of Highways for Over-limit Transport Vehicles, which came into effect on September 21, 2016, is the most stringent regulation for overloading trucks in the history of China, causing an "earthquake" in the freight industry. In response to this rule, many transport users have purchased natural gas heavy trucks. In an interview with reporters, the relevant person in charge of Xichai said: “The state’s policy of governing foreign affairs is one of the main reasons for promoting the rapid growth of natural gas heavy truck sales.”
The main combustion products of natural gas vehicles are water and carbon dioxide, and the tail gas does not contain sulfide and lead. Diesel vehicle combustion products also have water and carbon dioxide, but there are also large amounts of carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides, particulate matter, and soot. Although most of the domestic regions have promoted the use of diesel vehicles under the National IV emission standard, they are still far from enough for environmental protection. Obviously, natural gas heavy trucks are more environmentally friendly than diesel heavy trucks.
It is because of the good environmental protection that natural gas heavy trucks get preferential policies.
On June 23 this year, 13 ministries and commissions including the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology jointly issued the "Opinions on Accelerating the Use of Natural Gas." Among them is the following: “Accelerate the development of natural gas vehicles and ships, and increase the proportion of natural gas in public transportation, freight logistics, and shipping fuels.” “In the key areas of Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, and other areas for the prevention and control of atmospheric pollution, accelerate the promotion of heavy-duty natural gas (LNG) vehicles instead of heavy duty vehicles. Diesel cars."
According to the person in charge of Daimler, Futian, Beijing, promoted by the national environmental protection regulations, some ports and regions prohibit the entry of fuel vehicles. Local governments such as Tianjin, Hebei, and Shandong have introduced new policies that prohibit all ports from using diesel vehicles to transport coal.
Some local governments also set a non-compliance area for non-compliant diesel vehicles. From April 11th, 2014, gasoline vehicles that failed to meet the national emission standards and diesel vehicles that did not meet the National III emission standards (collectively referred to as “Yellow Label Vehicles”) were prohibited from entering the 6th Ring Road (inclusive) in Beijing. Roads and the main roads in the outskirts of the county pass; from September 21, 2019, all roads in Beijing Liuhuan Road (including) are prohibited from passing all the country's three emission standard diesel trucks throughout the day.
The person in charge of Yuchai said that the restrictions on diesel vehicles have stimulated the demand for natural gas vehicles.
The areas covered by the above policies are the areas where the purchase of natural gas heavy trucks is relatively concentrated. For example, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei is one of the major sales regions for heavy-duty trucks fitted with high-power engines in Xichai. China Heavy Truck Natural Gas heavy-duty truck market is dominated by the north.
According to the National Thirteenth Five-Year Plan for natural gas development, by 2020, the number of domestic natural gas vehicles is expected to reach 11 million. Natural gas vehicle ownership is expected to double compared to 2015.
With the strong support of policies, the domestic natural gas heavy truck market will develop rapidly.
Oil and gas price advantage is obvious
The relevant person in charge of Sinotruck's Sales Department and Xichai and other companies said in an interview with reporters that the price difference between oil and gas is also a major factor in the booming market for natural gas heavy trucks.
From the second half of 2014, international oil prices continued to decline, oil and gas price gaps continued to decrease or even upside down, and the economic efficiency of natural gas vehicles was significantly weakened. However, oil prices continued to rebound after bottoming out in the first half of 2016, and the oil and gas price gaps continued to recover, returning to the level of the 2013 high oil price period in early 2017. In an interview with reporters, the person in charge of Yuchai said that fuel prices have risen, and the economic performance of natural gas vehicles has been highlighted. Therefore, since November 2016, the production and sales volume of natural gas vehicles continued to grow rapidly; in January 2017, the domestic LNG (liquefied natural gas) truck production increased by 257% year-on-year.
It is understood that in the first five months of this year, China imported a total of 100,000 tons of liquefied natural gas from the United States; in the same period of 2016, its import volume was still zero. Responsible person of Weichai Power Co., Ltd. said in an interview with reporters that the United States cheap liquefied natural gas opened the door to the Chinese market and the CIF price of one cubic meter of natural gas was about 1.2 yuan. In this way, the price difference between natural gas and fuel increases, and the economics of natural gas heavy trucks become more prominent.
High-power natural gas engines are mainstream power
In recent years, the domestic automobile emission standards have been continuously upgraded from State One to Country Five. Currently, the implementation of the National Sixth Automobile Emission Standard has been steadily promoted, and the use of various automotive emission control technologies has been promoted. However, the quality of oil products has been plagued by the effective implementation of constantly updated automotive emission standards.
Although oil regulations are also escalating, there is a 17% spread between standard oil products and high-sulfur oil products, leading to a large proportion of various high-sulphur fuel oils on the market. Even in regions such as Beijing, Hebei, and Shanxi where the management of motor vehicle emissions is more intensive, the average sulfur content of fuel actually used by users is 100 times higher than that of the National Five-Standard Fuel.
Natural gas is a relatively clean energy source in fossil fuels. Therefore, natural gas heavy trucks are more capable of meeting the ever-evolving requirements of emission standards than fuel trucks.
With the tightening of national environmental protection regulations, the demand for natural gas heavy truck market continues to rise.
Natural gas vehicle technology is relatively mature, with good dynamic stability, and natural gas engines with power and torque close to those of diesel engines have been developed. According to the person in charge of Yuchai, high-power natural gas engines are more powerful, more efficient, and have higher attendance, and they have gradually become the mainstream driving force for tractors.
The person in charge of Weichai said: “Among the national natural gas heavy trucks, 95% are heavy-duty tractors, which are mainly used for logistics transportation of industrial products such as steel and coal, and energy logistics transportation.” In addition, the adequacy of natural gas resources is a hot market for natural gas heavy trucks. One reason. Therefore, the natural gas heavy truck market is concentrated in areas where natural gas resources are extracted and its surrounding areas, and steel, coal and other goods are produced in more areas. For example, heavy truck sales markets equipped with Weichai high-power natural gas engines are concentrated in central and northwestern China. In addition to Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, heavy trucks equipped with Xichai high-power natural gas engines are also sold in Shanxi, Shaanxi, Henan, and Liaoning; Heavy trucks equipped with Yuchai's high-power natural gas engines are mainly sold to Xinjiang, Shaanxi, Shanxi, and Henan; the CNG heavy-duty truck market is dominated by the north.
The relevant person in charge of Xichai also introduced such a situation: Because the advantage of the natural gas heavy truck purchase cost and use cost that are narrowed by the price difference between the national and the sixth national and national emission standards diesel heavy trucks gradually reflected, more and more users choose natural gas heavy trucks.
It can be seen that the natural gas heavy truck market is hot, which is the result of multiple factors such as environmental protection, economy and technology.
Yuchai relevant person in charge said: "High-power natural gas engine demand has just started. In the future, the demand for high-power natural gas engines still has a lot of room for development."