Business Overview 

-The Company achieved year-over-year growth of 67.3 percent in both sales and production for 2010 by selling 12.62 billion yuan and producing 13.1 billion yuan worth of products. The company thereby achieved the production and sales targets of 10 billion yuan, which were included in its eleventh five-year business plan. The volumes of heavy duty transmissions produced and sold in the year reached 890,000 and 853,000 units respectively, an increase of 71.2 percent from what they were in 2009. In addition, the company has maintained the top position in the industry for nine years in a row, as well as the greatest sales and production volumes of heavy-duty transmissions in the world for six years in a row. (From news releases issued by multiple sources on January 10, 2011)

Joint venture

-Shaanxi Fast Gear Co., Ltd. and Caterpillar Investment Co., Ltd. will establish a joint business to produce commercial vehicle transmissions at the Xi’an High Tech Industries Development Zone. The new company, which will be tentatively called Xi'an FC Intelligence Transmission Co., Ltd. and be capitalized at 500 million yuan, will be owned 51 percent by Shaanxi Fast Gear, 45 percent by Caterpillar, and 4 percent by the Company. The Xi’an facility will develop, produce, and sell automatic transmissions, intelligent transmission devices, and other transmission products for commercial vehicles. Shaanxi Fast Gear is a joint-venture company between Weichai Power Co., Ltd. and  the Company. (From a press release, April 9, 2011) 

 

Completion of aluminum alloy die casting facility

-The Company completed its aluminum alloy die casting facility at its Baoji Plant. As a result, the facility will become the most advanced production plant performing aluminum alloy die casting operations to make transmissions, as well as becoming one of China's largest plants having the capability to perform lost-foam casting operations. (From a press release, March 5, 2010)

<Recent developments>

-Heavy-duty vehicle, mechanical automatic transmission (AMT)

<R&D structure>

- The Company's total amount of R&D spending per year is equivalent to approximately 5 percent of its overall sales.
- The total number of R&D staff as of December 2008 is 500.

R&D Facilities 

Facilities

Gear & Driveline Research Institute

Processing Research Institute

Product Test Labs

Multi-condition test road for trucks

Shaanxi Fast Auto Drive Engineering Technology Research Center

-On March 30, 2011 the Company held a ceremony to celebrate the establishment of the Shaanxi Fast Auto Drive Engineering Research Institute. The new R&D center consists of the design research center, the engineering laboratory, the testing center, and the prototype manufacturing center. (From a press release, March 31, 2011)

-On October 28, the Company held a ceremony to celebrate the completion of its state class technical center, the establishment of which was approved by five governmental organizations including National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the Ministry of Science and technology, and the Ministry of Finance. The company announced at the ceremony that its production and sales during the period between January 1 and October 25, 2010 reached 10,630 million yuan and 10,540 million yuan respectively, and all-year sales through December are likely to exceed 12 billion yuan. (From a press release, October 29, 2010)

Technological alliance

-WABCO Holdings Inc. announced that the company has entered into an agreement with Shaanxi Fast Gear Company, Ltd., to supply WABCO's OptiDrive(TM) transmission automation system. WABCO will furnish OptiDrive systems for Fast Gear's platform of new F-Shift transmission products. Series production is expected to begin during 2011. (From a press release on April 19, 2011)

Product development

-The Company displayed 10 types of transmissions that it developed in house, at the Auto China 2010 held in Beijing. A majority of these transmissions use aluminum alloy cases. There are six types of transmissions, which are categorized by gear speed (5-, 6-, 8-, 10-, 12-, and 16). In particular, the 12-speed automated manual transmission and a power take-off system attracted a great deal of attention from visitors, who came from China and other countries. (From a press release, April 27, 2010) 

Major investment projects

Project	Planned amount of investment	Status (as of Dec. 2010 )
Establishing transmissions for buses facility at Baoji Plant	more than 300 million yuan	under construction
Building transmission synchronizers facility at the Xianyang Automobile Industrial Park	520 million yuan	under construction

 

New plant

-On December 17, 2010,the Company held a groundbreaking ceremony for its new plant in Baoji. The new facility will produce transmissions for 6DS buses. The company is investing more than 300 million yuan in this facility, which will have a total building area of 30,000 square meters. Its production capacity is expected to reach 50,000 transmissions a year. (From a press release, December 19, 2010)

- The Company is investing 520 million yuan in building a new plant at the Xianyang Automobile Industrial Park, Qindu District, Xianyang City to produce transmission synchronizers. The plant's annual production capacity is expected to reach 1 million sets. The construction work, which started in June this year, is scheduled to be completed in the same month next year. (From a press release, October 28, 2010)