Proton sends shipment for the first time to the Middle East since 2015
KUALA LUMPUR: Proton, the Malaysia-based automaker, has restarted exports to the Middle East, with 440 units of the Proton Gen2 and 13 Proton Persona models loaded into the Grand Diamond cargo as their first consignment. This is the first time when the Malaysian automaker is exporting cars since it joined hands with the Chinese multinational automotive manufacturing company, Geely.
The ceremony took place at Westport in Port Klang yesterday in presence of Proton CEO, Dr Li Chunrong, deputy CEO, Radzaif Mohamed and other dignitaries. It was back in 2015 when Proton sent a major consignment to the MENA region, precisely, to Egypt.
The cargo ship has been directed towards Aqaba, which is the only coastal city in Jordan. From Aqaba, the Proton models will be distributed to different neighbouring countries like Iraq, UAE and others. According to the automaker, there is a quite strong following in the region. That said, the owner clubs are believed to be active despite the export/import break off over the past few years.
Dr Li Chunrong, the Proton CEO said, “The Middle East markets hold high regard for products from Islamic countries like Malaysia. The demand for cars will grow as their economies develop and will help fuel the growth of our export business. The ASEAN market, however, will remain as the main priority for Proton’s export business so we are excited about the opportunities available in the region”, he further added, “We are exploring all opportunities to grow export volumes for Proton. Geely is making a big effort to support us in this initiatives and there is a lot of experience within the group so we hope to leverage on it to enable us to sell more cars outside of Malaysia.”
Additionally, Proton has worked out ways to improve the product quality and offer better vehicles to the customers. This was made possible after the Global Customer Product Audit (GCPA) system was implemented in its production procedures. As a result, the company registered a threefold improvement.
Based on the points system where the smaller values indicate better quality, Proton got a GCPA score of 1,763 points at the end of June 2018. The company targets to bring down this figure to 1,500 by the end of the ongoing year. The scores for Volvo and Geely, on the other hand, were rated at 850 and 1,200 points respectively.
Radzaif Mohamed, the deputy CEO who was also present at the ceremony said, “This ceremony marks a starting point for Proton as we resume and ramp up shipments to the Middle East in the coming months. It’s also the first export shipment since the partnership with Geely commenced and we expect our export market to have a positive outlook in the future so be prepared for more such announcements from as early as August this year.”
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