Chinese trucks will be tested for compliance with Russian safety requirements. Rosstandart has already recognized Shacman SX3258 trucks as posing a significant danger on the road for both drivers and other road users. The vehicle type approval (OTTS) for the dump truck of this manufacturer has been suspended, and sales and import of the model were banned. Other brands from China may also have their vehicle type approvals revoked. Experts say that this measure may be aimed at protecting Russian manufacturers. How a potentially dangerous truck was certified, Izvestia found out.
Threat to life and ill health
Rosstandart in the course of control and supervisory activities revealed the non-compliance of the Shacman truck type SX3258 with a number of mandatory requirements of the Russian Technical Regulations.
"Non-compliances in terms of rear underride protection (or the so-called underride bar) and side guards pose a direct threat to the life and health of drivers and passengers of passenger vehicles, who will suffer significant damage if involved in an accident involving such truck equipment," Rosstandart said in a statement.
In turn, violations of noise restrictions are a factor of industrial stress and directly affect the well-being and health of the driver of such vehicles and contribute to his fatigue. Ultimately, this may cause an accident, summarize in Rosstandart. And nervous tension of drivers, associated with increased background noise, can lead to health disorders - headache, dizziness and exacerbation of blood pressure.
Will fall under the recall
The agency ordered the manufacturer to develop a recall program to correct all design violations. It will affect both sold and unsold trucks. After the program is agreed with Rosstandart, dealers will have to contact truck owners and inform them where and when free repairs can be carried out.
Sales of potentially dangerous trucks must now be suspended. According to Rosstandart information, more than 15 thousand units of Shacman SX3258 trucks were imported into the Russian Federation, of which 2170 are already in operation. We are talking about dump trucks of N3G category with 6×4 or 6×6 wheel arrangement and GVW of 31 tons.
Russian distributor Shakman Motors, in an official statement on February 7, initially denied information about the impending recall and sales ban and hinted at the insignificance of the identified defects.
The statement claimed that test results revealed only three violations. High noise levels were attributed to a broken compressed air system muffler. The underride guard had a broken attachment bolt, and the side guards had observations in the rounding and width of the elements. However, two days later, Shakman Motors LLC decided to suspend sales of the SX3258 trucks.
"Numerous complaints have been addressed."
Shacman is not the only Chinese brand to which safety issues have arisen. Thus, on February 5, the head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade Anton Alikhanov stated the need for more rigorous work on certification, especially when it comes to checking the compliance of machines from serial batches. According to him, the ministry has already analyzed the situation with trucks and "identified serious violations of the cars of three Chinese brands, which simply should not be allowed on the roads".
Problems with the certification of Chinese trucks have been known for a long time, the National Automobile Union (NAU) confirmed.
- We have addressed numerous complaints about Sitrak trucks: the company recalled only 209 out of 2,366 trucks that were not equipped with correct emergency call devices. At the same time, in less than a year these vehicles have been involved in more than 422 accidents," Anton Shaparin, vice-president of the National Automobile Union (NAU), told Izvestia.
According to him, Shacman is only the first swallow, and soon there will be other brands of vehicles, which will have claims regarding compliance with the established requirements.
- The question is whether the recalled OTCS were initially issued with violations, or whether after certification the "substandard" started to arrive in our country. Both options are possible here. On the one hand, in a number of cases, certification is based on test documents issued by laboratories of the EAEU countries. Practice shows that often such laboratories often consist of an office with a laptop and printer. On the other hand, very often Chinese automakers change parts, units and assemblies of cars, and in such a way that the spare parts do not fit the cars afterwards, - Anton Shaparin explained.
Spanish timber
Before certification, the vehicles were successfully tested, Pavel Burianov, head of InfoTechRazvitie LLC, which issued OTTS for the Chinese trucks, told Izvestia.
According to him, all the relevant requirements of the technical regulations of the Customs Union TR TS 018/2011 "On the Safety of Wheeled Vehicles" have been complied with when issuing the OTTS.
- For those properties that are specified in the news article on the website of Rosstandart, the manufacturer has provided approval notices issued by the administrative bodies of the member states of the Geneva Agreement of 1958, - he noted.
Thus, according to the annex to the OTTS, the basis for certification of the rear and side guards of the dump truck were the documents of the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism of Spain. The effectiveness of the brakes has been confirmed by the Belarusian body for certification of engineering products "Akadem-Sert.
Any factory changes and design improvements should be made with regard to the requirements of local documents, told "Izvestia" the development director of "AAA Traxservice", the official dealer of MAN, Sinotrak, Isuzu and others. Alexei Ramazanov. If such a discrepancy is detected, it must be eliminated by the manufacturer as soon as possible, including the announcement of a recall campaign.
- In the case under consideration, suspension of the OTCS is most likely a temporary measure necessary to bring the Shacman vehicles in compliance with all the requirements of the Technical Regulations. The only question is the manufacturer's interest in the Russian market and willingness to finalize the design. And in order to put into circulation already imported vehicles, the manufacturer's representative will have to eliminate all discrepancies, - Alexei Ramazanov.
Protecting Russian
The story with inspections and revocations of OTTS for Chinese dump trucks looks like another attempt to protect the domestic manufacturer in the market, says Igor Morzharetto, partner of Avtostat.
Indeed, according to the results of 2024, the "Chinese" pushed KAMAZ (17.2 thousand cars) to the second place: Sitrak became the sales leader with the result of 19.4 thousand cars. Shacman took the third place (15.7 thousand cars), and its dump truck SX3258, which was at the center of the scandal, became the third most popular truck, the data of "Avstostat" show. Moreover, the first two places also remained for the "Chinese" - Sitrak C7H and Dongfeng 4180.
PJSC "KAMAZ", according to its own calculations, sold in Russia 4.15 thousand trucks weighing from 8-14 tons and 20.3 thousand vehicles weighing over 14 tons. The company's net loss under RAS for 2024 amounted to 3.4 billion rubles against net profit of 11.9 billion rubles a year earlier, follows from the automaker's message, which is quoted by TASS. Profit from sales of KAMAZ amounted to 909.4 million rubles against 14.3 billion rubles in 2023.
- It should be remembered that in 2022 it was Chinese trucks that prevented the entire trucking industry from stopping," notes Igor Morzharetto.
The expert also drew attention to the peculiarities of dump trucks operation in our country, which affect safety.
- We should realize that absolutely all dump trucks work with monstrous overload - both ours, Chinese and European. If a machine designed for 20 tons is loaded with 40 tons, it will definitely have problems with brakes and controllability. And the risk of structural elements and chassis failures under overloading increases many times regardless of the brand," said Igor Morzharetto.
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