Hyundai Motor, South Korea’s top carmaker, has started producing heavy-duty trucks in China, a company official said Wednesday, joining an intensifying competition with rivals such as Daimler and Volvo for the Chinese market for big trucks.

Production of the two-engine Trago Xcient luxury trucks recently began as Hyundai completed its commercial vehicle plant in Ziyuan, Sichuan province, said the official at Hyundai’s Beijing office.

The new plant in Sichuan was completed about two years after Hyundai and its local partner, Sichuan Nanjun Automobile, launched a joint commercial vehicle venture.

Hyundai has predicted a steady rise in sales of big trucks in China, citing the Chinese government’s policy of urbanization and its acceleration of development in central and western China.

The Sichuan plant has an annual production capacity of 150,000 commercial vehicles and 10,000 buses, the official said. Since early this year, the new plant has been rolling out the County minibuses, which compete directly against the Toyota Coaster. (Yonhap)