From “Building” to “Maiden Voyage”: DFLZM and the Pinglu Canal Go Hand in Hand

On September 16, the Pinglu Canal officially opened to navigation. On that day, FORTHING KD kits, as one of the maiden voyage cargoes, arrived at Beibu Gulf Port via the Pinglu Canal and were shipped to the ASEAN market. Liu Xiaoping, Party Secretary of Dongfeng Liuzhou Motor Co., Ltd. (DFLZM), was invited to attend the maiden voyage ceremony as a company representative, witnessing the historic moment when the canal of the century connects rivers to the sea and empowers regional industries to go global.

Photo: Pinglu Canal opening ceremony. Photo source: Guangxi Daily

The Pinglu Canal, 134.2 kilometers long, is the first river-to-sea canal planned and coordinated at the national level since the founding of the People’s Republic of China. As a flagship project of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor, it is not only a waterway but also an important link for cross-border cooperation, bringing multiple countries into an interconnected trade chain. The canal’s opening opens up a convenient waterway from Guangxi’s inland rivers directly to the Beibu Gulf, making the export chain of “Liuzhou Intelligent Manufacturing — Pinglu Canal — Beibu Gulf Port — Global Market” smoother and more efficient, and pressing the accelerator for DFLZM’s global layout. Leveraging the logistics dividends empowered by the canal, DFLZM’s path to overseas markets has become even wider, laying a solid foundation for the company to deepen its global footprint.

Photo: Vessel carrying FORTHING KD cargo at the opening site

While the Pinglu Canal was still under construction, DFLZM had already committed itself to the project. During construction, Chenglong dump trucks and tractors were deployed in batches to the construction site, deeply serving the three core hubs of Madao, Qingnian, and Qishi, with over 60% of the engineering vehicles on site being Chenglong trucks. These Chenglong dump trucks and tractors shuttled back and forth across the construction site, transporting earthwork, sand and gravel, and steel, operating at high frequency in complex construction environments and providing solid transport support for the project. The busy Chenglong trucks on the front line of construction gave concrete form to “Guangxi Intelligent Manufacturing” and made DFLZM, a local industrial calling card, visible to more people.

Photo: Chenglong trucks operating at the Pinglu Canal construction site

“In the past, we served engineering construction with equipment; today, our products go overseas through the Pinglu Canal,” said Liu Xiaoping, in an interview with the media. For DFLZM, this is a leap in identity from a participant in engineering construction to an enterprise going global through a national strategic corridor, and an important milestone in the company’s own development history.

With advance planning and precise positioning, DFLZM had long anchored the value of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor and built an overseas cooperation system. As early as February this year, DFLZM signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Beibu Gulf Port Group to advance port forward warehouse cooperation, expand ro-ro shipping route networks, and cooperate on green smart logistics and international supply chain services. These cooperations cover multiple stages from factories to ports and from ports to overseas markets.

Now that the Pinglu Canal is officially open to navigation, the voyage for goods from Southwest China to the sea can be shortened by more than 560 kilometers, significantly reducing comprehensive logistics costs. Automobiles and parts produced in Liuzhou now have a shortcut to reach Beibu Gulf Port via inland rivers and then be shipped overseas.

Speaking of post-opening plans, Liu Xiaoping said: “Next, we will incorporate the Pinglu Canal into our overall export logistics system on a regular basis, continue to deepen port-industry synergy with Beibu Gulf Port, make full use of this national strategic corridor, optimize supply chain layout and overseas expansion pace for the broader global market, solidly support ‘Guangxi Products Going Global,’ and bring more Guangxi-made intelligent vehicles to the world.”

DFLZM is Dongfeng Motor Group’s core export base for Southeast Asia. Guangxi is adjacent to ASEAN, and the company has the full-chain resources of Dongfeng Motor Group behind it; the autonomous region also provides support in corridor construction, cargo organization, multimodal transport, and navigation services. These conditions have laid the foundation for DFLZM to expand its overseas markets. At present, DFLZM’s business covers more than 120 countries and regions worldwide, has built 9 KD plants in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Central Asia, has over 200 overseas sales and service outlets, and has completed 6 key technical projects including the overseas vehicle testing system. In June 2025, DFLZM released the “Riding the Wind: Dual-Engine Plan” to promote Chenglong commercial vehicles and Forthing passenger vehicles to jointly explore overseas markets. According to the plan, by 2030 it will invest a cumulative RMB 20 billion, strive to achieve annual overseas sales of 155,000 vehicles, and advance toward the goal of “building another DFLZM overseas.” The core of the “Riding the Wind: Dual-Engine Plan” is to systematically upgrade “product + channel + service + manufacturing” as a whole, rather than simply selling vehicles.

In June 2026, facing the “15th Five-Year Plan,” DFLZM further released the “725 Dual Leadership” strategy. In ASEAN, DFLZM plans to build three ten-thousand-unit markets: Vietnam relies on its KD plant to consolidate its advantage and sprint toward ten thousand commercial vehicles; Thailand focuses on right-hand-drive passenger vehicles to build a second ten-thousand-unit market; Indonesia, as Southeast Asia’s largest automobile market, is DFLZM’s strategic reserve market.

From January to August 2026, DFLZM’s overseas complete vehicle exports exceeded 33,000 units, achieving fruitful results in core ASEAN markets. In the commercial vehicle segment, Chenglong trucks were delivered in batches multiple times in Cambodia, Vietnam, and other markets, with market share firmly in the local first tier, consolidating its regional leadership; in the passenger vehicle segment, Dongfeng Forthing Friday debuted at the Bangkok International Motor Show in Thailand, and Dongfeng Forthing’s U-TOUR launch in Myanmar fully demonstrated the company’s full-chain product development and market adaptation capabilities for right-hand-drive markets.

Photo: Chenglong trucks delivered in batches in Vietnam

Photo: Forthing Friday launched at the Bangkok International Motor Show in Thailand

The opening of the Pinglu Canal reshapes the opening-up pattern of Southwest China, unblocks the dual-circulation land-sea corridor, and builds a strategic carrier for Guangxi manufacturing to integrate into the global market. DFLZM stays committed to its industrial roots, deepens its overseas “product + channel + service + manufacturing” layout, solidly cultivates the global market with its Guangxi Intelligent Manufacturing strength, supports Guangxi Products Going Global, and drives the globalization breakthrough of Chinese Intelligent Manufacturing — striving toward the sea with ambition, pursuing the global dream!