"The World Needs 'Made in China': An In-depth Interview on Golden Dragon Bus
2025-02-06 Source：www.chinabuses.org
Summarize：As a member of China's automotive industry, Golden Dragon Bus's export business has grown steadily– from January to November 2024, China exported 5.345 million vehicles, up 21.2% year on year, including 826,000 commercial vehicles, up 19.3% year on year.
In mid-December 2024, a group of overseas buyers visited the factory premises of Golden Dragon Bus. Instead of lingering in the conference room or engaging in a cursory tour, they dived straight into the production workshop of Golden Dragon Bus – where their Chinese "mentors" were. These engineers from ASTANA MOTOR in Kazakhstan seized every opportunity to ask questions and record every issue they were concerned about. They were more like coming for a study experience.
The diligence of these engineers left Hu Hui, the vice president of Golden Dragon International Trading Company, with mixed feelings. "These are the engineering and technical personnel from our KD project factory in Kazakhstan. When we first started cooperating, they were a bit skeptical about our requirements and the process essentials we explained. Now, the Kazakh side respects our technical suggestions very much and follows the principle of 'implement first, ask questions later'."
Letters of Appreciation from Kazakhstan
In addition to the engineering team coming to China for a study experience, Golden Dragon Bus also received three letters of appreciation. In the letters, the Kazakh side did not stint on their praise for the local team of Golden Dragon – it was with the help of the Golden Dragon team that the production line's capacity increased steadily from less than one vehicle per day to two vehicles per day.
"Don't underestimate a stable daily output of two vehicles," Hu Hui told reporters. "Before this cooperation, although ASTANA MOTOR had dabbled in the automotive industry, it had no experience in bus production. An annual production scale of over 600 vehicles is definitely second to none locally and can be considered 'top-tier' even among regional countries. We have put in eight years of effort into this production line." This production line has stably produced over 600 various bus models, significantly improving the vehicle conditions of local road transportation in Kazakhstan.
The Kazakhstan market is a microcosm of Golden Dragon Bus's steady and progressive export business in 2024. Sales in the CIS region, where Kazakhstan is located, are expected to exceed US$100 million in 2024; the annual export business of Golden Dragon Bus is expected to grow by over 22% year on year.
Steady as a Rock Amidst the Storm
As a member of China's automotive industry, Golden Dragon Bus's export business has grown steadily– from January to November 2024, China exported 5.345 million vehicles, up 21.2% year on year, including 826,000 commercial vehicles, up 19.3% year on year.
An Min, President of Golden Dragon International Trading Company, Interviewed by Reporters"Looking back at 2024, the objective environment for our export business has undergone some changes, and the undercurrents and headwinds we have encountered are not limited to this," An Min told reporters.
"Overall, I am optimistic. In the next five years, the export of China buses will continue to grow optimistically. Of course, this is first and foremost attributed to the overall accumulation of China's automotive industry and the capability of China's comprehensive and complete industrial system," An Min said humbly but powerfully. "The world needs China buses, and Golden Dragon Bus is delighted to be a provider of Chinese wisdom."
Golden Dragon's KD Factory in Tunisia
Three Key Strategies – The Significance of the Golden Dragon Model
"The world needs China bus industry!" This statement is resolute and carries a sense of confidence. It is not self-praise but a mission entrusted to China's bus industry by the times. In response to the requirements of the times, Golden Dragon Bus has condensed three key strategies: "long-term perspective," "tailored solutions," and "collaborative innovation." These are not only powerful tools for overcoming difficulties but also wise and open strategies.
When observing the export path of Chinese bus companies, the most common form is commodity exports. For a considerable period, this has been the most basic and primary business model for Chinese bus companies' exports. The more fundamental the business model, the more it tests the company's capabilities. A vast amount of data on the market demand, transportation modes, climatic conditions, road conditions, and other factors in a country or region requires time to accumulate; and customer trust is not built overnight but through continuous communication to establish mutual understanding and trust until an opportunity window appears. Being a friend to customers and a friend to time, adhering to a long-term perspective, is evident in Golden Dragon Bus's orders. This year's delivery of 100 CNG low-floor buses to Jamaica was the result of over 20 years of persistent effort by Golden Dragon's business personnel; similarly, Golden Dragon Bus has cultivated the Indonesian market for 20 years before seeing the fruits of its labor.
Long-term perspective involves accompanying customers and inevitably experiencing their growth and changing needs. A considerable number of customers, after growing, choose the business model of knockdown (KD) assembly to facilitate subsequent industrial upgrading. Golden Dragon Bus's insight into and commitment to KD in its export business is also a byproduct of its long-term perspective. As early as 2018, Golden Dragon Bus established a KD Business Department, embracing the KD business model, which may seem "unrewarding" in the short term, as part of its export business layout while its complete vehicle commodity trade was thriving.
"We are very willing to help our partners establish their own KD projects locally. Complete vehicle trade is relatively more direct and simple, but if we put ourselves in our customers' shoes, it's not hard to find that most customers hope to go beyond the trade model. Local governments have more expectations for us in terms of expanding employment, enhancing economic development, domestic industrial capabilities, and national self-confidence. (Firmly promoting KD projects) may not be an industry consensus, but it is a consensus within Golden Dragon," An Min said. "Of course, the resources and difficulty level we need to invest in KD projects are exponentially higher."
Golden Dragon's KD Factory in Kazakhstan
Taking the KD project in Kazakhstan as an example, "We started preliminary contacts with our customers in Kazakhstan around 2016. Over the past eight years, we spent three years deeply and thoroughly understanding the local market and customer needs; then, in 2018, we signed a framework agreement based on assembly and gradually started the KD project with small-scale orders and trials of a few to a dozen vehicles; the KD project has gone through initial launch, small-scale production, gradual stabilization of scale and daily production capacity, and then capacity improvement, overcoming obstacles at every step." Hu Hui calmly reviewed the eight years in Kazakhstan, "From the initial site selection for the factory, equipment selection, assembly line design, workstation layout, selection and training of engineering and technical personnel, to the shipment of knockdown parts, customs clearance efficiency, and more, the number and difficulty of issues that the KD project requires us to coordinate and resolve are not on the same scale as commodity trade. Until later this month, our business personnel for the KD project in Kazakhstan just started their journey back to China after being stationed there for nearly half a year."
Each KD project has the same complexity and trivia, but (for Golden Dragon Bus) KD business also has another characteristic – it is unique to each situation – which has honed Golden Dragon Bus's second key strategy, "tailored solutions."
The market demands of countries around the world are ever-changing, and similarly, understanding and perception of KD projects, investment scales, production capacity planning, local industrial bases, and resource endowments vary widely. Dai Gang, Manager of the Overseas KD Project Department at Golden Dragon Bus, summarized it this way, "KD projects with investments in the millions, tens of millions, and over a hundred million each have different focuses. There is no ready-made formula to apply. We need to carry out personalized design and planning based on each project, the customer's situation, the host country, and the actual resource conditions of the location." It is precisely this tireless "tailor-made" approach that has allowed Golden Dragon Bus's KD projects to "bloom globally," from Vietnam and Thailand in Southeast Asia, to Kazakhstan in Central Asia, and even to Ethiopia in Africa, totaling 13 KD projects and setting new records for Chinese bus companies going abroad.
From Solo Operations to Collaborative Innovation
"Countries around the world differ in their national conditions, environments, and resource endowments. From traditional gasoline and diesel engines, alternative fuels like CNG, to hybrid solutions, pure electric, and hydrogen energy, different regions, countries, and application scenarios pose specific but vastly different demands on buses," An Min told reporters. "However, China's automobile industry, and particularly its bus industry, happens to be able to provide mature products across all these solutions. Therefore, I believe our advantage, and the advantage of Chinese buses, lies in our full-chain supply chain system capabilities and the rapid integration capabilities of our complete vehicle enterprises."
Golden Dragon Bus has transformed the seemingly solo operation of "exporting" into a collaborative and system-demonstrating "joint operation of multiple forces" involving multiple enterprises. Collaborative innovation has thus become the third "magic weapon" for Golden Dragon Bus's exports.
"Based on my years of observation, no matter which country it is, once customers have used Chinese bus products, Chinese buses will become their first choice in the future. We will also accompany our customers, growing together from complete vehicles to KD production," An Min confidently stated. Indeed, when the engineers and technicians from ASTANA MOTOR packed their bags and prepared to leave Xiamen, they had already confirmed their next learning plan at Golden Dragon Bus – to increase the production capacity of the KD production line to the next level. "As a Chinese automotive professional, I am honored that at this point in time, China's bus industry has the most comprehensive solutions in the world, the most reliable manufacturing capabilities, and the most meticulous technical planning strength. Looking globally, the market is large enough. I hope that we can work together with our supply chain partners to bring Chinese solutions to benefit consumers in more countries and regions, and help realize the vision of 'people enjoying convenient travel and goods flowing smoothly'," An Min told reporters.
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