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Paolo Monferino, Iveco CEO, spoke yesterday afternoon at the “Third Forum on Italian Success Stories in China”, organised by the Italy-China Foundation and held at the Kilometro Rosso science and technology park in Bergamo.

The Chinese market for commercial vehicles, already the biggest in the world, is still growing rapidly and represents a tremendous opportunity to develop global operations and boost exports outside Europe for Iveco.

Iveco has been present in the Chinese market since 1985. Today Iveco can has 3 joint venture activities with the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation, SAIC, through which it covers all market segments with a complete range of commercial vehicles. In the standard market segment in particular, light and medium commercials are marketed under the Yuejin brand, while heavy commercials are sold under the Hongyan name. The Iveco brand is reserved for the various ranges of the premium segment.

Thanks to this new organisation, Iveco has passed from 20,000 units sold in 2006 to 94,000 in 2007. Today, the Chinese market absorbs around one third of total worldwide sales for all the companies of the Fiat Group.

Paolo Monferino illustrated Iveco’s forecasts for 2008 and stated that sales are likely to top 115,000 units manufactured and sold locally within China.

Iveco’s strategy for the Chinese market stands on 3 main pillars:

• the development of Chinese joint ventures by applying Iveco technology to local products, to improve both quality and performance and consequently to boost profit margins and local market share;


• increase in the volume of Chinese exports to other emerging nations, including those of Africa, the Middle East, South America and Asia, using Iveco’s global distribution network to supply reliable products that are suited to local customer needs;

• the development of a network of quality suppliers to make European products more competitive on a global scale.

Paolo Monferino concluded by reminding his audience that, in order to improve the quality of management and encourage more profitable exchanges between China and Europe, last year Iveco took on over 100 young Chinese graduates who spent between twelve and eighteen months working with Iveco in Italy before returning to work in the company’s joint ventures in China.