King Long Buses are Exported in Batches to UAE Making a Good Start in 2019 Overseas Market

Under the title of “Cooperation for a Better Future”, the delivery ceremony of King Long buses to UAE was held in King Long Xiamen plant on January 23^rd, 2019. In the ceremony, 66 brand-new luxurious tourist buses are delivered to the UAE customer.

A good start in overseas market—King Long delivered 66 luxurious tourist buses to UAE

2019 marks the 35^th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and UAE. The buses delivered to UAE combined serve as a witness to the friendship between China and UAE. UAE is important in the “Belt and Road Initiative”, and this cooperation is another important cooperation achievement made by China and UAE under the Initiative. The delivery of the buses makes a good beginning for King Long in overseas business, laying solid foundation for exploring overseas market in the following three decades of development.

King Long tops in the share of the UAE market thanks to years of efforts

“This has been the largest batch delivered since our cooperation with King Long. We sold only 8 King Long buses in 2008 when we first cooperated with King Long, and we registered a sales volume of over 200 in 2018 in UAE. King Long has become the biggest-selling bus brand in UAE and the Gulf Region.” In the delivery ceremony, Mr. Declan McCluskey, CEO of the AG Auto Trading LLC, the dealer of King Long in UAE, reviewed the cooperation history of the both parties and said that: “In years of our cooperation, King Long buses prove highly adaptable to the extreme conditions of UAE and are able to maintain at the optimum state even in continuous long distance operation. With products of high quality and efficient services, we are confident in our cooperation of the next decade.”

Zhang Bin, King Long's General Manager, made a speecMr. Declan McCluskey, CEO of the AG Auto Trading LLC, made a speech

Mr. Declan McCluskey, CEO of the AG Auto Trading LLC, made a speech

For more than 10 years, the market share of King Long in UAE was among the biggest and even the first in 2018. King Long tourist bus entered the UAE market as early as in 2007. A subsidiary transport company of the UAE Government placed an order of King Long buses in 2010, the first order of a Chinese bus brand made by the company. With King Long constantly participating in public transport co-construction of UAE in recent years, Chinese buses make the debut in public transport of UAE. In 2018, King Long received a batch order of school buses from the largest school bus operating company in UAE, setting another milestone for Chinese buses in exploring UAE market.

Zhou Fangming, the Deputy General Manager of King Long, awarded the title of the “Best Dealer” to AG Auto

Zhang Bin, King Long's General Manager, indicated in his speech that: “There are over 800 King Long buses including tourist buses,city buses and school buses employed in the mass transit system of UAE. Following the national policies of reform and opening up and guided by the “Belt and Road Initiative”, we will cooperate with our cooperative partners to build a better future.”

Export growth against the trend of decline was seen in 2018

The achievement in UAE is an epitome of King Long's success in overseas market.Though sluggish economic growth is seen worldwide for the past few years, King Long succeeds in maintain an export volume of over 10,000 buses, topped in the industry, by following national strategies. King Long builds partnerships with over 60 countries along the “silk road” including Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Egypt and Russia, in the market of the “Belt and Road Initiative”, which is really impressive. This also makes King Long the Chinese bus enterprise owning the largest share and the most complete layout in the market of the “Belt and Road Initiative”.

In 2018, the economic environment was not favorable on the whole, but King Long still realized growth. It exported over 10,239 vehicles, the largest export volume in the industry. Its overseas sales volume was about RMB 1.9 billion, leading the industry with significant year-on-year growth. Achievements of each market are satisfactory: For large and medium buses, King Long ranked first in terms of export volume to West Asia in both 2017 and 2018 among Chinese bus enterprises. The amount of King Long buses exported to UAE was the highest among others. In addition, more than 700 buses were exported to Saudi Arabia, which was also among the highest. In Kuwait market, King Long broke the deadlock and exported the first batch of Chinese double-decker buses to Kuwait. In traditional strategic markets, the export sales to Thailand consistently ranked the first place.

For the outlook 2019, Xie Weiguo, the Overseas Marketing Director of King Long, said that: “At the background of a complex and uncertain foreign trade environment, the situation of international bus market is still severe in 2019, but new development opportunities are also spotted. As the “Belt and Road Initiative” further advances, demands of countries along the “Belt and Road” will gradually increases. In addition, new opportunities and growth points of bus export are also found in China-Africa cooperation, SCO projects and cooperation projects with countries which newly establish diplomatic ties with the PRC. The overseas marketing department of King Long will make persistent efforts to achieve a breakthrough at new points of growth and expand the international market, with the company's 30 years of R&D strength, innovation capability, advanced technologies, and by taking advantage of favorable conditions.”