China-Africa Cooperation Enter a New Period: King Long Soars Again in Africa

The 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation has come to an end. This summit has pushed China-Africa cooperation to a new stage and injected strong impetus into the economic and social development of Africa. Chinese President Xi Jinping said in his keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the summit, "China is willing to work closely with African countries under the guidance of building a strong community of shared future for China and Africa and on the basis of implementing the "Ten Cooperation Plans" and will focus on the implementation of the "Eight Major Initiatives" in the coming three years and in the further future" and comprehensively planned the priority areas and key directions China-Africa cooperation. The cooperation between China and Africa has set an example for South-South cooperation, effectively safeguarding the multilateral trading system, and bringing new opportunities for Chinese bus export and cooperation.

Africa is the second largest continent in the world, both in terms of area and population, and is the most concentrated region with the largest number of underdeveloped and developing countries in the world. Most countries have weak industrial bases and have no sound automobile industry chain, so the automobiles are highly dependent on import. Therefore, they are the important export markets for Chinese buses. As an outstanding Chinese independently-developed bus brand, what kind of extraordinary journey has King Long gone through in Africa?

Precision Efforts to be a Pioneer

King Long has always been a pioneer of Chinese bus export. Especially, King Long's mini van has taken the lead in Africa. Since 2008 when it entered the African market, it has exported more than 36,000 buses accumulatively in Africa, ranking the first place in the industry.

King Long's Minivan Running in Tunisia, the "Pearl" of North Africa

In recent years, King Long's mini van has made an particularly impressive achievement in North African market: In 2016, 255 mini vans were exported to Tunisia for the first time, for which, a zero breakthrough was achieved for Chinese mini vans in Tunisia and King Long became the only Chinese mini van brand in this market. King Long's excellent quality and service won the recognition of the Tunisian market. Since then, it has realized continuous mass export to this market. In addition, King Long's mini van has also successfully entered many large markets such as Egypt, South Africa and Nigeria, where the accumulated export volume is over 2,000.

King Long's Buses Exported to Morocco

King Long's Buses for Transport of Soldiers in Morocco

The export business of King Long's large- and medium-sized buses to Africa is also remarkable: In Morocco, hundreds of King Long's buses serve local international passenger transport lines and daily traffic; In Angola, more than 400 King Long's luxury buses serve local passenger transport business; In Kenya and Zimbabwe, 85 limousines provide comfortable and convenient travel for government departments. 200 luxury buses travel through the streets of Eritrea and become a beautiful landscape. King Long has become the favorite bus brand of the local people because of the beautiful appearance, excellent performance, ride comfort and strong after-sale guarantee of the buses.

Win-win Cooperation to Build a "Blue Sea"

At present, the overall economy in Africa is relatively backward, and the road and operation conditions are relatively poor. In order to adapt to the local environment, King Long has fully utilized its technological advantages to rapidly carry out the adaptive development and adjustment of the products and improve the product performance. In addition, King Long has made full use of local endowments and resources to promote the cooperation projects and continuously expand market share.

Since there was no automobile scrapping system in Egypt, "rattletraps" could be seen everywhere, and the traffic accident rate was extremely high. Moreover, the traffic congestion in Cairo, the capital, is extremely serious. In 2012, Egypt began to restrict the import of used cars, which brought opportunities for export of Chinese buses. However, the gasoline quality in Egypt is poor and the price difference between 90# gasoline and 80# gasoline is huge. After technical analysis and verification, King Long launched Kingwin mini van equipped with carburetor engine and entered the market quickly.

King Long's Mini van, a Good Travel and Business Partner of Egyptian People

At present, King Long's light buses have become the main force of the transportation of Egyptian people, including medium- and long- distance intercity passenger transport, short-distance passenger transport, transport in city, commute of employees, etc. King Long's HIACE products have become very popular after entering the Egyptian market and the market volume has increased significantly. It has effectively improved the transportation life of the Egyptian people. Given the import tariff difference between vehicles and parts, King Long decisively launched the CKD project to promote cooperation in production with local enterprises, which not only reduces the tariff but also promotes local employment.

Nigeria is the largest country in Africa in terms of population and economic aggregate. It has a vast territory and strong passenger transport demand. However, the operation conditions are extremely severe. The one-way distance often reaches 500 km, which is a great challenge for performance of the vehicles. Before introduction of the buses, King Long dispatched service and technical personnel to be resident at the customers' sites for a long time to collect and record the vehicle use information, adjusted the technical configurations based on the actual problems and made improvement continuously to meet the actual needs of the local operation. The existing HIACE products with stable performance are well received by the customers.

King Long and its Dealers Jointly Build the KD Project in Nigeria

King Long's Buses Serve African Games

Africa is a "Continent of Hope". For Chinese buses, it is also a hopeful field. China and Africa will join hands to build a strong community of shared future. Under the "Belt and Road" initiative, China-Africa cooperation projects have been launched one after another. The future trade environment is bound to be better. This is a new opportunity for the development of bus business. In the future, King Long will continuously improve product and service quality, and offer more professional travel solutions for African customers to provide better travel experience for African people.