J A Plant Pool to assemble Chinese trucks locally
J A Plant Pool, distributors of Chinese heavy duty equipment and other vehicles, is to establish a vehicle assembling plant in the country to assemble trucks, buses and other earthmoving and heavy duty equipment.
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The initiative is in line with the company’s new drive to reposition itself as the market leader in all segments of the business, its Managing Director, Mr Lolu Akindele, has said in Accra.
“We are in talks with our Chinese partners about setting up an assembling plant here in Ghana. The whole idea is to help reduce transaction costs that we incur when we import the vehicles and create more jobs for Ghanaians,” Mr Akindele told the Daily Graphic after the launch of the company’s fifth anniversary celebrations in Accra.
The move, if successful, will be the first of its kind in the country as almost all vehicles in the country and their spare parts are imported.
The company also used the anniversary launch to introduce its latest brand of trucks – A7 trucks — into the Ghanaian market.
The A7 trucks, which are produced by Sinotruk in China, comprises more than 100 models that include tractors, tipper trucks, concrete mixers, fuel and water tankers, and will be distributed by Plant Pool.
J A Plant Pool, a subsidiary of the Jospong Group of Companies, has been operating in the country since 2008, after it acquired the then ailing Plant Pool.
It started its operations with the importation and distribution of 250 units of the China-made Yutong buses in the country and that has increased to 1,000s as patronage for the brand in the country keeps growing.
It has also diversified into related areas such as the leasing, renting and sale of heavy duty and earth-moving equipment, graders and trucks to the mining, construction and the emerging oil and gas sectors.
The MD said the company was now aiming at consolidating the gains it had chalked up over the years by undertaking strategic initiatives that would help enhance its visibility.
“The assembling plant is part of those initiatives. We will also look at opening more offices in neighbouring countries,” Mr Akindele added.
J A Plant Pool currently has contact offices in Sierra Leone and Togo and has distributed some vehicles in Nigeria before, the MD added.
The Minister of Transport, Mrs Dzifa Attivor, said at the ceremony that plans for the establishment of the vehicle assembling plant should be taken seriously, given the enormous benefits that it held for the company and Ghana as a whole.
“Don’t just say it but let’s make sure that next year by this time, you will be calling us to come and inaugurate that assembling plant. If you do that, then you will be helping in technology transfer and job creation,” she said.
Also present at the launch were the Economic and Commercial Counsellor of the Chinese Embassy in the country, Mr Gao Wenzhi, the General Manager of Sinotruck North Africa Area, Mr Yuan Zhongbo and the customers and board members of J A Plant Pool.
Story & Picture: Maxwell Adombila Akalaare