Luxury coach-builder Kama Bus to expand its presence in US

A foreign technician helps his Chinese colleague inspect a bus at a factory of Kama Business Bus. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Luxury coach-builder is looking to crack the US market after breaking into Australia, Europe

A Chinese luxury bus firm hopes to drive export growth by expanding its market presence in the United States.

Since 2006, the Jiangxi Kama Business Bus Co Ltd has sold more than 200 high-end vehicles to the biggest economy in the world.

On paper that is a tiny proportion of the company's sales compared to its main foreign business operations in Australia and Europe.

But Li Han, deputy general manager of Kama Bus, is convinced the highways in the United States are paved with gold for the right company with the right strategy.

"The US market has huge potential and we are in a right place at the right time," Han said from the firm's headquarters in Nanchang, Jiangxi province.

"Our positive performance in overseas markets has resulted from targeting the high-end sector by building luxury buses."

To break into the market, Kama Bus has produced vehicles to rigorous safety standards. Experts from the US are even assigned to the company's factory to check the workmanship for export orders.

"Products will be certified as long as they are completed at the factory," Han said, adding that tough procedures are enforced on buses built for markets in Australia, Europe and the Middle East.

New designs are also discussed with their export partners before they are rolled out, and this attention to detail and safety has helped put Kama Bus in the driving seat when compared to other vehicle manufacturers in China.

So far, it is the only firm in the country that sells buses to the US, Australia and Europe. In Australia alone, it has a 20 percent market share after selling more than 2,000 vehicles there since 2007.

Apart from the "big three", the company also exports to 27 other countries, including Egypt, Malaysia and more recently Costa Rica. It also has a large regional presence in China.

This year, Kama Bus is predicting export orders of about 1,000 vehicles worth 400 million yuan ($62.96 million) in sales without disclosing further detailed financial information.

Despite the difficult global economic climate, the company has managed to weather the downturn better than most of its competitors.

"The situation for China's bus export market was grim in the first half of this year," Yu Zhenqing, secretary-general of China Highway and Transportation Society's passenger coach branch, said.