| 14-05-2008
Over as long as 6 years of cultural integration into Jianghuai Automotive Group, the optimizing to have the product coverage and price spectrum serialized in Anhui Ankai Automobile Co., Ltd. has come to materialized. The new system has offered enhanced capability and confidence for Ankai to speed up in unfolding its strategy for overseas market this year. Shortly after established a contract exporting 6oo buses to Iran, on 4th March, Ankai was accredited with ADR certificate issued by Ministry of Communication of Australia for 13.7m deluxe coach, the first 2 of which ordered by Murrays in Australia will be put into operation in Australia this month.
As a well-know top class coach and bus manufacturer in China, Ankai started the cooperation with Setra Omnibusse in Germany in 1993, to produce deluxe coach domestically, and apply the advanced technology, especially the integral designed body to the engineering of buses, tourist coaches and highway coaches, gradually formed a products configuration characterized with ample types and multi series covering the lengths from 6 to 18 meters. Last year, Ankai realized 2.45 billion RMB Yuan of selling volume in coach section. When it comes to international strategic planning, Wang Jiang-an, the chairman of the board, explicitly claimed, Ankai is to discard the mode of low level competition to strive for building an international brand.
Last year in domestic market, according to the statistics of China Automobile Industry Institution, the increased range of selling volume of business-used vehicles has surpassed that of passenger-used vehicles for the first time. The experts analyzed, the multiply effect sustained by ever increase economic growth will generate a greater demand on large and medium-sized coaches in China. With such speculations, why does Ankai take another way and focus on overseas market? The people concerned put the question to Mr. Wang Jiang-an. He explained, it is not a diversion from the set guideline, which is to build coaches for the world by resources from the world. For years Ankai has always stayed on the road to the world, and it is a matter of taking the chance to lift it to the strategic level under the favorable circumstances.
More than ten years ago Ankai first brought into China Setra technology of coach manufacturing, the world advanced coach technology with a superior safety performance, and later based on it developed Ankai-Setra deluxe coach, which is engineered with the so-called Bird Cage structure. Such Structure is capable of breaking down the impact when collision occurs, preventing the coach body from twisting and fracture, and left with sufficient survival space for the passengers inside the coach. This structure not only has a reduced overall weight, so raising the efficiency in fuel consumption, but also makes a larger room for luggage compartment. Ankai constantly put product safety as top element. No matter with design or with technical renovation, Ankai has invariably attached the most importance to the safety to passengers lives, and deemed it a prerequisite to sustainable survival of products and to continued growth of firms. On June 2005, Ankai pioneered the sideward capsize experiment on coach in China. The success of experiment proved Ankai had made a great leap in coach safety.
What is more, through a joint development with German specialist, Ankai coach has acquired unique advantages in appearance design, comfortable performance and economic features. Especially, the new generation of Ankai coach has met the international standards in safety, power performance, and comfortable performance, energy-saving and environmental friendliness. These strengths will no doubt facilitate
Ankai to march onto international arena.
In domestic coach market, Ankai for year has maintained a reputable selling performance. Since the last quarter of 2007, only market Beijing ordered 400 deluxe coaches, a number of records-breaking for this segment. Ankai HFF6180G02D articulated city bus has been registered on the State Catalogue of Key New Products in the Year 2007 issued by ministry of science and technology. Domestic coach market, Wang Jiang-an remarked, is still high in terms of selling volume, but it is also evident that the products tend to be homogeneous; the competition is still lingering to the traditional mode. These prevalent deficiencies tend to trigger price war, and finally exert detrimental effects on health development of coach industry.
In the course of its development, Ankai has always stood adamant and make its own contributions in pushing forward technical applications through employing leading technology in building quality products. Growth through excellence, such practice has been testified by the prosperity of coach industry and the satisfaction of the customers. Ankai’s international strategy to face with competitions all over the world, will erect an example towards a higher level of technology and quality.
According to Wang Jiang-an, Ankai has set up an international business department as a foundation for im-export transactions supported by project management. With more overseas channels established and distribution network rearranged, Ankai has successfully built up regular contacts with over 20 would-be customers in Europe, the United States, Asia and Pacific region, middle east and north Africa, most of them have signed contracts long term or mid term with Anaki. Through these channels, Ankai products, coach and bus chassis have exported to Peru (CNG bus), Dubai (GS-1 urban tourist-viewing bus) and Malaysia (D29 bus chassis). At the same time, Ankai coach has also appeared in America, Australia, the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, Hungary, Rumania, Peru and Iran, the total value under intention contract reached 700 million RMB Yuan.
Based on its advantages of high quality and high price/performance ratio, Ankai has speed up the standardization of products and the application for accreditation necessary for key marketplaces, in order to strengthen their competitiveness. By the end of the last year, they formulated a selection of coaches and main components to match with them as standard types for overseas market in 2008, the selection consisting of city bus, 18 m BRT, coaches with different overall lengths of 13.7m, 12m, 10m and 9m. At present, some types have obtained the accreditation certificates of Hongkong and Australia, and other accreditations including GCC for Middle East, EEC for EU, DOT and FMVSS for USA are under application. This year Ankai has determined to put more resources for developing overseas market, Wang Jiang -an concluded, they will cultivate key regional markets, improve overseas services, and lift the integrated advantages to a systematic one to realize the prospects on international markets.
Editor: Ida Zhang from Chinabuses.com
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