The 12th of July 2018 was quite a surprise if you have been following what has been up with Malaysian car manufacturer Proton. Suddenly out of the blue, Proton are now exporting cars again. This is the first time in two years they are doing so and a small fleet of 453 Proton Gen2 and Persona cars will make its way to the Middle East, namely Jordan, Iraq and UAE (markets under the Al-Bakhet Group). This is also the first time they are exporting since coming under the management of Geely.
From left: En Abdul Rashid Musa, Chief Executive Officer of PROTON Edar, Mr Low Pooi Choon, Managing Director of Sunship Sdn Bhd, Mr Eddie Lee, Chief Executive Officer of Westports Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Dato’ Radzaif Mohamed, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of PROTON, Steven Xu Yuan, Director, International Sales Divison of PROTON, Dr Li Chunrong, Chief Executive Officer of PROTON, Mr Khalid Al-shammari, Chief Executive Officer of Al-Bakhet Group, Mr Justin Jae Sung Yang, Head of India & South East Asia, EUKOR Car Carriers Inc.
A symbolic flag-off ceremony was held at Westports Malaysia’s berthing area to commemorate the occasion on the date mentioned above attended by the management of Proton and also the distributor from Iraq. Now why Iraq? Well, according to Proton demand remains strong for Proton products in the middle east, especially Iraq. The enthusiasm for the cars is such that there are even active owners clubs in the region despite the slow-down in exports over the past few years.
The port of arrival in the Middle East is Aqaba in Jordan and from there, the cars will be distributed to Iraq and other neighboring countries. According to Proton, there will be pushing the products Jordan, Iraq and the UAE for now.
"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,” said Dato’ Radzaif Mohamed, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of PROTON.
Even the Westports port facility management is happy! Eddie Lee, Chief Executive Officer of Westports (pictured above with Dr Li), said, “We are equally excited to partner PROTON in its efforts to export cars all over the world, particularly as its last major export to Egypt was back in 2015. We believe Westports’ partnership with our customers like PROTON together with shipping agents like Sunship will further strengthen both brands, and help ensure cars sent over are in pristine condition.”
Also present at the ceremony was Dr Li Chunrong, Chief Executive Officer of PROTON. He 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.”
PROTON is also leveraging on Geely’s extensive overseas network operations to increase the cost effectiveness of its own operations.
“We are exploring all opportunities to grow export volumes for PROTON. Geely are 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,” added Dr. Li.
I suppose this is all fine and dandy. But note that these markets are left hand drive markets and do note that the cars exported are Proton Gen2 and the first generation Persona. These are surely the remaining stocks that Proton has kept since exports halted more than two years ago (with the last major export in 2015!!!).
The Gen2 and Persona are either cars that have been kept in their yards (and refurbished using new parts) or totally new cars that have been assembled from remaining parts. Whatever the case, the people in Middle East are getting brand new LHD Gen2 and first generation Persona, a car which has been out of Proton's local sales catalogue for a while already. This folks, is the surprise.
It is a waste that these 453 cars were not pushed two or three years ago as exports could have continued back then. While it is good that things are starting up again, I cannot help but wonder what Proton's market share if things were kept on track back then. But two or three years ago is when everything went to hell for Proton. This was the period prior to the launch of the new Saga, Persona, Perdan and Ertiga. Times were dark back then.
Also overheard was the fact that the CEO of Al-Bakhet group stated that the group would like to distribute and sell the upcoming Proton-Geely Boyue based SUV and future electric car models for the Iraq market. This is a good thing if it happens. It would make things easy for Proton as this time, they can just rebadge the LHD Boyue as a Proton right away to make sales take off in these left hand drive markets. It also makes sense as Proton's head of Sales mentioned on TV3 that they are looking at export figures totaling 100,000 units with some vehicles originating from Malaysia and some from other countries. The interest from the Iraqi importer would make a good sales opportunity for them.
I do hope sales of Proton will be kick started with this first round. Sales to Jordan, Iraq and even UAE would be good. I also hope that there will be peace in the Middle East. It is still an area which is volatile and dangerous. So much unrest and wars going on. I also hope that Iraq finds peace these days. Last I read, the ISIL terrorists no longer control and part of the country any more. Let's hope this peace stays for a long time so that Proton can export more cars over there.
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