(Yicai) Feb. 25 -- Xugong Automobile Manufacturing, a Chinese maker of new energy trucks, has reportedly raised CNY6.4 billion (USD881 million) from investors.

The fundraiser drew 30 investors, including China Baowu Steel Group, China Logistics Group, Aluminum Corporation of China, and state-owned investment holding company China Reform Holdings, National Business Daily reported today.

The funds will go to strengthen Xugong's technological and product innovation, so it can lead the development of the new energy heavy-duty truck industry, the report cited Yang Dongsheng, who chairs its parent company Xuzhou Construction Machinery Group, as saying.

Yang also revealed that Nanjing-based Xugong, which led China's new energy heavy truck sector last year with a 17.5 percent market share, aims to go public within five years.

Set up in 2011, Xugong produces three types of commercial vehicles: pure electric, hydrogen-powered, and hybrid. It sold 14,359 new energy heavy trucks in 2024, a 167 percent surge on 2023, the company said.

Its state-owned parent is China's largest maker of engineering machinery. XCMG’s net profit rose 10 percent to CNY5.3 billion (USD729.7 million) in the first nine months of last year from a year earlier, while revenue fell 4 percent to CNY68.7 billion (USD9.5 billion), per its 2024 third-quarter earnings report.

Editor: Tom Litting