China versus Europe in Tanzania’s Trucks and Buses race – The Tanzania Times

While Chinese buses such as Higer, Yutong, Zhongtong and Golden Dragon models are dominating Tanzanian roads as far as passengers’ transportation is concerned.

However, when it comes to cargo hauling it is the European trucks that top the bill in the country.

And now Beijing wants to revise its fortunes in this segment, planning to drive Sweden’s Scania and Germany’s Mercedes Benz off the trucking track.

China has just unveiled the first assembly plant for the Howo trucks and tippers in Dar-es-salaam in its bid to flood Tanzania with as many trucks as Buses.

The new Howo assembling plant is intended to supply the Chinese-made trucks to the East and central African Region.

President Samia Suluhu Hassan inaugurated the USD 20 Million factory in the commercial capital.

The project has received some financing from Exim Bank (Tanzania) Limited.

Howo will assemble the commercial vehicles for both local use in Tanzania and exporting beyond borders.

The Dar-es-salaam plant is a Complete Knock-Down (CKD) assembly, which means that the Howo trucks and tippers will be imported in parts and assembled in Tanzania.

An estimated 70 percent of the vehicles produced by the assembly plant will be sold locally in Tanzania, while 30 percent will be exported to neighboring countries

The vehicles are assembled by China’s heavy duty truck group Sinotruck, in partnership with Saturn Corporation, the official distributor for Howo trucks, tippers, tankers and related spare parts in Tanzania.

Howo trucks are currently used in the transport, construction and mining sectors in Tanzania and elsewhere in Africa.

China is banking on cost-effectiveness of its Howo and Sinotruck vehicles in beating the already tried and tested European models such as Volvo, Scania, MAN and Mercedes Benz.

The other Chinese truck and engine maker FAW Jiefang had previously also launched its assembly plant in Tanzania in 2020 and now Howo is joining the oriental forces.

China was also assembling Foton trucks in Nairobi Kenya where other Chinese and Japanese automotive branches have been operating.

Kenya also assembles Isuzu, Nissan, Toyota, Scania and Volkswagen.

It seems Tanzania is slowly but surely working towards challenging Kenya to become East Africa’s automotive hub.

The continuously moving assembly line will produce 30 Howo trucks and 9 tipper Lorries per day

The first trucks were rolled out of the assembly plant in March this year and 150 trucks were already assembled by yesterday.

All the 150 trucks were snapped up by Tanzanian customers, with more orders on the waiting list

The assembly plant employs 250 permanent workers and may create about 1,800 indirect jobs.