An employee works on a production line of Sinotruk Fujian Haixi Truck Co in Zhangzhou, Fujian province, on July 7, 2020. [Photo by ZHANG BIN/CHINA NEWS SERVICE]

JINAN -- The China National Heavy Duty Truck Group, or Sinotruk, on Thursday officially put into operation an assembly plant that can churn out up to 100,000 heavy-duty trucks annually.

The project in the Laiwu District of Jinan, capital of east China's Shandong Province, has a total investment of 15 billion yuan ($2.3 billion) and covers an area of 207 hectares.

The plant can reap revenue of 35 billion yuan with a tax payment of 2.5 billion yuan annually, said the largest heavy-duty truck manufacturer in China.

In the future, the facility will apply technologies of new energy, autonomous driving, and artificial intelligence to upgrade its traditional trucks to new-energy and intelligent, connected ones, Sinotruk said.