Fuwa, one of the largest semi-trailer special parts and components manufacturers in the world, is confident of continuing its strong run in the Indian market, backed by its belief that India will head in the same direction as markets like Europe and China when it comes to efficiency of the tractor-trailer market.
Talking to MOTORINDIA in a one-to-one discussion, Mr. Scott Tan, Vice General Manager, Sales & Marketing Director, Fuwa, says: “What is happening in the Chinese trailer market at present will soon happen in India. The loading capacity is the most important factor for customers who are increasingly becoming concerned about the efficiency of their trailer and its components. They are focusing on safety, light-weighting and ease of maintenance. We have seen it happen in Europe and we will see it happen in India very soon.”
Fuwa axles, suspensions, landing legs and other trailer parts have been very well accepted in the Indian market where its products are sold and serviced by its partner KKTC. With its new product strategy, the Chinese brand looks to enter the next phase of growth in India.
Fuwa’s acquisition of European trailer axle maker Valx towards the end of 2014 was a shot in the arm for the company, giving it access to European design and technology. Having been very successful in the Indian market with its standard product range, the Chinese firm is looking to further strengthen its presence in the country by bringing its European design products to India, albeit with a number of modifications to make them more robust and suitable for Indian roads and operating conditions.
“Valx is our European brand and their standard product is a 9 T axle and air-suspension. The product is very good but if we have to introduce it in the Asian market including in India, we need to do a lot of modifications to it. We have upgraded the loading capacity from 9 T to 10 T, changed the European round beam to a square beam so that the axles are more suitable for the mechanical suspensions that are part of almost 95 per cent of the trailers in India. We make such adjustments to ensure our European products are more suitable to local applications in India”, reveals Mr. Tan.
An important reason for Fuwa’s success in the Indian market has been its connect with the end users, the trailer operators. While the company has built a good reputation with some of the leading trailer OEMs based on the quality and reliability of its products, it firmly believes the end user to be the driving force when it comes to choice of key aggregates such as axle and suspension.
“The feedback for our products in India has been very positive. We spend more time with the end-users to know about their experience because the lighter the product, the lighter the trailer, which in turn gives a better user experience. Our strategy in India is to offer users our high-end Valx product. Once they have a good experience with it, they will specify our axles when they place orders with the trailer OEMs. While both end-users and trailer OEMs are important for us, for new products, we prefer to let the end-user experience it first”, he concludes.