JEDDAH, 16 July 2006 — For the first time ever, the top executive of a major Japanese truck manufacturing company visited Saudi Arabia. The economy of Middle East countries is growing and alongside their truck market is also expanding, and that explains my visit, Shoji Kondo, president and member of the board of Hino Motors Ltd., Tokyo-Japan, told Arab News at the Jeddah Hilton last week.
The Kingdom’s economy is booming together especially with its construction sector and we see excellent scope for us to increase our market share, said Kondo who was accompanied by a delegation, who earlier visited Kuwait and proceeded to the UAE from the Kingdom, included Sumio Fukaya, Hino Motors senior executive officer of overseas planning; Keiichirou Utsumi, Middle East group manager; and Sachio Yotsukura, group leader of automotive sales and marketing department at Tokyo-based Toyota Tsusho Corporation.
During their stay here, the team visited the facilities of Jamjoom Vehicles & Equipment, Hino Motors sole distributor for more than three decades, which was represented by Vice President Marwan Ahmed Jamjoom and Mansoor Ali Khwaja, general manager for sales and marketing.
The Kingdom is a major market in the Middle East and with its booming construction sector we are keen to increase our market share, especially in the medium and heavy duty truck segments, Kondo said, adding that the market here is highly competitive and demanding. The Kingdom takes around 20,000 new trucks a year which includes heavy duty, medium and light duty trucks, Mansoor said. In 2007, we expect our Hino truck business to rise considerably as lot of projects are coming up, We are targeting Kingdom’s market with our recently launched new generation heavy duty trucks; our light duty trucks are not yet available here, which could have a major volume share, Mansoor further added.
Hino Motors has two assembly plants in Japan for their domestic and export distribution world wide, besides having plants at Thailand, Indonesia, the United States, Canada, South Africa, Vietnam, Mauritius and Pakistan to meet their local demand.
Hino Motors has 33 percent of its market share in Japan, and has set a target of increasing its overseas market share by up to 40 percent, Kondo added.
Hino represents durability, quality and reliability and these have contributed toward the low cost maintenance of its trucks, he said, adding that this has in turn resulted in low consumption of spare parts and customer retention. Considering a promising growth in near future, we are actively thinking of establishing a spare parts depot in the GCC, Kondo said without specifying where it will be located.
Jeddah-based Jamjoom Vehicle & Equipment company which has branches in Riyadh, Dammam, Madinah, has plans to expand its network through branches and dealers across the Kingdom, Marwan Ahmed Jamjoom said.
