Learn Chinese - Geely aims to grow at home and abroad

BIZCHINA / Li Shufu

Geely aims to grow at home and abroad
By Jonathan Yeung (HK Edition)
Updated: 2006-05-20 07:40

Geely Automobile hopes to export its cars to Southeast Asian countries
soon.

The mainland's largest private automaker's executive director Lawrence
Ang said yesterday: "We expect to start exporting our cars to Southeast
Asian countries such as Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore
and Thailand by the end of 2006."

As one of a few mainland car exporters, Geely last year sold about 7,000
sedans in more than 30 countries and regions, mostly in the Middle East,
Africa and Central America.

Geely will assemble as many as 2,000 CK sedans in Malaysia this year, Ang
said. "We will sell 20 per cent of those in Malaysia and the rest will be
sold in other Southeast Asian countries."

CK, known as Free Cruiser on the mainland, is a sedan developed jointly
by Geely and South Korean automaker Daewoo. Between 5,000 and 6,000 Free
Cruisers have been sold on the mainland every month since the car was
launched last year.

In May 2005, Geely signed an agreement with a Malaysian company that
allowed it not only to sell its cars there, but also to assemble CKs and
a series of other sedans.

Could the possible appreciation of the yuan affect his company's
operation? Ang said he was not worried about Geely's exports that could
be hurt if the yuan was appreciated. "Our production and sales are now
mainly focused on the mainland market, therefore the impact (of the
yuan's appreciation) will be minimal on us."

"The number of units exported every year accounts for no more than 5 to 6
per cent of our total sales, and hence the appreciation of the yuan will
not really do any big harm to our business as a whole," he said.

Designing and manufacturing more than 30 types of cars solely, Geely sold
a total of 133,041 sedans in 2005, 101 per cent more than the previous
year, with its turnover increasing by 147 per cent to HK$101 million. Its
net profit soared, too, to HK$111 million, 36 per cent more than 2004.

Geely's production capacity is about to reach 300,000 units a year by the
end of 2006, Ang said. "With that sort of capacity, we hope to sell more
sedans in 2006."

In 2005, Geely's market share of passenger cars on the mainland was 4.8
per cent, and it was listed as the tenth largest passenger carmaker and
seller.

Geely aims to expand its market share to 5 per cent this year. "We should
be able to meet the goal by selling 180,000 sedans," a confident Ang said.

In the first four months of 2006, Geely sold 62,784 sedans, that is,
about 35 per cent of its total expected sales volume for the year.

Its market share on the mainland exceeded the targeted 5 per cent. In
fact, it was 5.2 per cent in April.

(For more biz stories, please visit Industry Updates)

Most Popular Stories in 48 Hours

� Cities may alleviate housing woes

� Rural labor shortage beginning to be felt

� Xie Qihua: Made of Steel

� ICBC to open subsidiary in Moscow

� Good news in desertification control

Today's Top News 

� Russia, China close ranks in Central Asia

� China emerging from shadows of AIDS

� Court hears last appeal for fugitive Lai

� Taiwan's 'security report' hurts peace

� Yangtze river 'cancerous' with pollution

Top Biz News 

� Carrefour keeps pace with expansion

� In real-estate market, small now beautiful

� New moves to steer car sector stability

� Water consumption for per unit of GDP to drop 30%

� China, Japan start forum on energy saving cooperation

Alibaba is the largest B2B marketplace in the world. Source model ship,
wooden puzzle, one-piece toilet, RC hovercraft, photo album, prom dress,
pocket bike, Vaginal Speculum, Samurai Sword, String Panty and PVC Pipe.

Learn Chinese