Double Q Company Ltd has commenced construction of a new assembling plant to increase its output of mainly Sinotruk heavy goods trucks in Uganda. Currently, the company with its operations at Busega along the Northern Bypass in Rubaga Division, Kampala, is putting out more than 300 trucks per year quite less than the market demands.
The company’s brands include the Howo Sinotruk, XCMG earth moving equipment, HELI forklifts, and factory loaders. The company that started with the importation of trucks from China, mainly for Chinese road construction companies in Uganda, started assembling three years ago. They have since started exporting to Rwanda, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Kenya, though recently they built a plant in Kenya to take on the many other assembling companies there.
Bruce Lin, the General Manager, of Double Q, says they have now acquired 15 acres of land along the Mpigi highway where they hope to expand production, adding that specifically, they will have the capacity to assemble 1000 vehicles, per year, dominated by their Sinotruk flagship brand.
He was speaking at the company’s 10th anniversary in Uganda. For now, Uganda remains their largest market, with the sales doubling every year since 2020 when they sold less than 100 trucks, to this year when they expect to sell 600 locally assembled units. Bruce says they are also surprised by the demand for the earth moving equipment or graders and excavators, with 75 sold in a year.
The Sinotruk has a dented image on the road as several accidents are reported involving the vehicles time and again. This raises the question about their safety and security capabilities. However, Bruce says the trucks comply with world and Chinese government standards and therefore have no safety and security issues. He, however, says there is a challenge with the high growth rate of the transport sector which has resulted in a night rise in employment opportunities especially for drivers.
As a result, there are many unskilled drivers who find themselves on the road, and end up causing accidents. According to him, there is a need for a strict training regime for drivers in the country, adding that they, as a company, do retraining of their drivers and customers. On the safety of the operator, Bruce says they don’t get reports of deaths of drivers because of the safety measures of the trucks.
Government and NRM spokesman, Ofwono Opondo said the first truck assembling plant in Uganda should serve as an acknowledgment that Uganda can host such heavy investments in the expensive industries. He hailed the company for focusing on skills transfer with hundreds of Ugandans being trained in the technical areas, which is poised to get better with the establishment of a bigger facility in Mpigi.
On the fear of substandard products in relation to imports from China, Opondo said the products at Sinotruk have so far proved that China can produce quality. He instead blamed Uganda businesspeople who prefer importing low-quality products because of the low costs, and end up distorting market information about all the Chinese imports.
Didan Bahwerwa, of Badidan Investments Ltd, has been a customer and client of Double Q for 10 years and bought his first truck from them five years ago and has since grown the fleet to 11. He says he has realized that the trucks are more profitable than the other brands, with relatively low maintenance costs, while the big capacity relative to other dump trucks has made it the preferred choice in the transport market.
-URN
