▲ Doosan Infracore CEO Dongyoun Sohn (second right) poses with SAMCO President Tran Quoc Toan (third right) at the engine supply ceremony held on July 11 in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
Doosan Infracore is set to make its full-fledged entry into the Vietnamese bus engine market.
On July 11, Doosan Infracore held an engine supply ceremony with the commercial vehicle maker SAMCO in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, with around 140 personnel in attendance including Doosan Infracore CEO Dongyoun Sohn, and officials from SAMCO and Ho Chi Minh City. The event included a demonstration of city buses mounted with Doosan Infracore’s CNG (compressed natural gas) engine.
Within this year Doosan Infracore plans to supply about 500 bus engines and bare chassis* to four Vietnamese commercial vehicle makers including 1-5 AUTO, TRACOMECO, THACO and SAMCO, starting with the latter. Individual contracts will be concluded in accordance with the product specifications and supply schedules required by each vehicle manufacturer.
Doosan Infracore, which became the first South Korean company to produce diesel engines in 1958, launched its bus engine business in 1975 and has since gone on to develop a lineup of engines that are used in construction machinery, agricultural machinery, commercial vehicles, generators, and ships in diverse industrial sectors.
Doosan Infracore has recently decided to enter the Vietnamese commercial vehicle market due to the market’s high growth and the enforcement of stricter exhaust emission regulations. To that end, it has been striving to acquire new customers and partners.
According to the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers Association (VAMA), in 2016 a total of 14,770 buses were sold in Vietnam, representing an increase of 20% from the 12,178 units sold in 2015, while the market for large-size buses mounted with an engine like the Doosan Infracore engine reached 6,214 units, which is more than double the 3,027 units sold in the previous year.
Doosan Infracore also plans to establish a parts and maintenance center in Vietnam and to strengthen its service education in order to actively respond to the projected expansion of engine demand.
An official of Doosan Infracore said, "We have been selected as the engine supplier by Vietnam in recognition of our accumulated experience in engine development, mass production know-how, and excellent maintenance skills. In addition, we plan to supply around 500 engines to Indonesia, which will host next year’s Asian Games, within this year. As such, we will gradually expand the supply of our engines to Southeast Asian countries."
* Bare chassis: A semi-finished product consisting of a car body frame and other main drive units such as engine that are mounted on it
▲ A city bus mounted with a Doosan Infracore engine at display in the engine supply ceremony held on July 11 in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
