The first domestically-produced heavy-duty truck of German automaker Mercedes-Benz Trucks rolled off the production line on Friday in the Chinese capital Beijing, as foreign players ramp things up in the world's largest commercial vehicle market.

The made-in-China Mercedes-Benz vehicle is produced in a factory owned by Beijing Foton Daimler Automotive Co., Ltd., a joint venture between global commercial vehicle giant Daimler Truck and Chinese manufacturer Foton Motor. The first batch of new trucks are slated for delivery in early November.

The company has teamed up with 150 Chinese suppliers to provide over 1,500 components for the trucks. The automobile plant is capable of producing 60,000 trucks each year.

It is the right time to go to market as China's logistics and transportation industry is developing in the direction of higher efficiency, higher standardization, lower carbon, and intelligence-focused, said Holger Scherr, the joint venture's president and CEO, adding that customers have an increasing demand for high-end logistics equipment to enable their business improvement.

China produced 238,000 units of commercial vehicles and sold 258,000 units in August, marking the first year-on-year growth in both production and sales since April 2021, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

The association estimated the growth trend might continue as a result of infrastructure improvements.

(Source: Xinhua News Agency with edits)