In 1994, Richard Leiter, a South African entrepreneur, took a gamble on the then unknown Chinese commercial truck maker FAW with the introduction of the first Jiefang CA141 truck into the South African market.
Two decades later, he had transitioned from importer to industrialist, with a sprawling assembly plant in the Coega special economic zone in South Africa’s Eastern Cape. FAW now outsells major brands like Toyota, Daimler and Isuzu in the heavy truck sector in South Africa, driven by…