Watching "Huonghai" luxury cruise liner sailing steadily on the lake at the beautiful resort of Halong Bay, Tang Haidong, director of Vietnam Office of Yuchai Machinery Co., Ltd., was thrilled. A heart named "Yuchai Engine" was beating in the cruise liner. This is also the resort's first cruise liner whose main and auxiliary engines were all made in China, breaking the domination of foreign engines powering Vietnamese cruise liners.

A decade ago, with the signing of the Joint Declaration on Strategic Partnership for Peace and Prosperity, China and ASEAN officially forged a strategic partnership. Over the decade, China-ASEAN bilateral economic and trade relations have developed rapidly, China-ASEAN exchanges have expanded comprehensively and China-ASEAN cooperation in various fields have yielded bumper fruits. In this context, Yuchai Group has forged ahead in the ASEAN market and opened a new field for itself: in the first half of 2013, Yuchai exported over 16,000 units to the overseas market, up 40 percent year on year; remarkably, it performed strongly in the ASEAN market, fulfilling 61 percent of its annual target in the first seven months of 2013; Yuchai's sales in the ASEAN market have accounted for some 35 percent of its total overseas sales.

Leap from 0 to 73,954

In 1951, Yuchai built a plant but exported no engine to the ASEAN market.

In the early 1960s, Yuchai 2105 marine engines and generating sets began to enter the Vietnamese market. In the following decade, Yuchai engines gradually earned trust from ASEAN countries for its advantage in energy conservation and environmental protection and its high reliability.

In the 1990s, Yuchai-powered engines were exported to Southeast Asian countries and galloped on roads of ASEAN countries in all sizes.

Since the beginning of the new century, Yuchai has marched towards the ASEAN market, accomplishing rapid and stable development in markets like Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand;

In 2000, Yuchai established offices in Vietnam and Indonesia, and extended its operations to the neighboring countries and regions. The share of Yuchai products in the ASEAN market has gradually expanded.

In 2005, Yuchai established service outlets in Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand. Yuchai exported 3,000 diesel engines to ASEAN countries in the year;

In 2007, mixer trucks and dumper trucks manufactured by Yuchai Special Vehicle Co., Ltd. were exported to Vietnam for the first time;

In 2008, Yuchai came up with the strategic idea of "breaking through Southeast Asia";

In July 2009, Malaysia's largest logistics company--Tiong Nam Group became Yuchai's service agent and the first enterprise to introduce Yuchai CNG engine in Malaysia;

In 2010, Yuchai YC6M340N gas engine opened the Thai market smoothly;

In 2012, Yuchai marine engine cut a figure in the ASEAN market.

By July 2013, Yuchai had had a market inventory of 73,954 units in the ASEAN market, including over 60,000 units in Vietnam alone. Now all vehicles running on bus lines in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh and operated by Chongzuo-Lang Son International Coach United Company have been powered by Yuchai, and Yuchai's products have been widely used in Vietnam's relevant fields such as automobile, construction machinery, agricultural machinery and ship.

Meanwhile, Yuchai's engine sales have been soaring in markets like Myanmar, Thailand and Laos, Yuchai's products enjoy overwhelming superiority in the Vietnamese and Myanmar truck markets, the Philippine and Indonesian marine engine market, the Thai gas engine market and the Malaysian coach market, posing threat to Japanese and Korean vehicles.

Through the great efforts of Yuchai staff over the decades, the dream starting in the 1960s has taken root, sprouted, blossomed and yielded fruits in ASEAN countries.

Sail large

The soaring sales data embodies the hardships of Yuchai staff and shows the charm of China-ASEAN Expo. Referring to that, Liang Bing, first director of Vietnam Office of Yuchai Machinery was emotional.

"A good government platform is better than a special promotional conference," Liang recalled, adding that effects were inconspicuous though he led his marketing team to work out a lot of ways in the early development of the Vietnamese market. Yuchai's engine sales in Vietnam were 100 or 200 units for straight years.

When Liang was worried, the 1st China-ASEAN Expo (CAEXPO took place in 2004 and Yuchai showed up with a strong lineup. Leading and complete products as well as grand pavilion design attracted attention from ASEAN countries and boosted Yuchai's sales in Vietnam and ASEAN.

Riding the wave of CAEXPO, government and enterprise delegations from countries like Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and Malaysia visited Yuchai, thus constantly enhancing Yuchai's local influence and broadening its roads in ASEAN countries.

In 2005, Nguyen Tan Dung, then deputy prime minister and incumbent prime minister of Vietnam, led a Vietnamese government delegation to visit Yulin and Yuchai. At Yuchai, two sides exchanged gifts.

In October 2009, Nguyen Sinh Hung, then standing deputy prime minister and incumbent chairman of the National Assembly of Vietnam, led a Vietnamese government delegation to Yuchai. At Yuchai, the delegation visited Yuchai's heavy machining line and heavy machinery assembly line, listening to introductions to the performance and market situation of Yuchai's various engines. Yuchai's automatic production lines and domestically leading engine technologies made a deep impression on the delegation. After the delegation returned to Vietnam, the members frequently introduced Yuchai to local enterprises and encouraged them to cooperate with Yuchai. "The number of enterprises visiting Yuchai for investigations and negotiations has been growing, and Yuchai's sales in Vietnam have been soaring with maximum annual sales of over 10,000 units," said Liang.

Besides CAEXPO, Yuchai has kept enhancing the influence of its products via other various commodity fairs. By participating in international exhibitions, advertising and marketing, Yuchai has attracted an array of potential customers and partners, and its overseas brand popularity has been growing.

China Guangxi (Vietnam) Commodity Fair is a fair Yuchai must participate in every year. At every edition of the fair, Yuchai would launch appropriate products according to Vietnam's geographical environment and preferences of Vietnamese consumers. At the 8th China Guangxi (Vietnam) Commodity Fair on June 19, 2013, Yuchai engines shone again, the five series exhibited attracted a lot of distributors, machinery plants and consumers, Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan was exactly one of them, who highly acclaimed Yuchai's product quality after carefully listening to Yuchai staff's introduction to engine performance.

Government sets up stage for enterprises

Every year, Yan Ping, chairman of Yuchai Group, would visit ASEAN for promotion as a member of the government economic and trade delegation of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. In 2007, Liu Qibao, then Party secretary of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, led a Guangxi delegation to visit five ASEAN countries. As the representative of a famous enterprise in Guangxi, Yan participated in the activity as part of the delegation, drawing wide attention. During the economic and trade fair, Yuchai signed cooperative contracts on six projects with Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia, with a total value of over 19 million US dollars. In July 2013, Chen Wu, chairman of the People's Government of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, led a Guangxi delegation to deliver a series of activities in ASEAN, such as commodity fair and promotional conference, Yan visited ASEAN as a delegation member once again, showcasing the mien of Yuchai Machinery to ASEAN.

While opening sales markets, Yuchai's products have attracted wide media attention by its outstanding performance in ASEAN countries. Not only did domestic famous media investigate Yuchai to explore and cover its way of development, journalists from ASEAN countries also made up interview groups for field interviews with Yuchai to introduce Yuchai and its products, also they visited Yuchai's offices in ASEAN countries to find out the performance of Yuchai's products abroad. The "external force" has been expanding the influence and charm of Yuchai brand.

Perfect network, stabilize market

The road of opening overseas markets is not always smooth.

Chinese construction machinery was always popular in the ASEAN market, even boomed in 2009 and 2010, but declined in 2011 and 2012 consecutively, with its market demand shrinking gradually. According to an industrial analysis, the situation was due to economic slump and excessive horizontal competition in ASEAN countries like Vietnam and lack of after-sales service support for products of some enterprises.

Aiming at the situation, based on its characteristics, Yuchai innovated its sales model and perfected its service network system while constantly improving its product technology and enhancing the core competitiveness of its products. So far, Yuchai built over 45 domestic and overseas offices, over 3,000 service outlets and over 4,500 parts sales outlets, and formed a service network with the largest scale, smallest service radius, longest warranted mileage and fastest response time in the domestic industry.

"We have signed 8 distributors in Vietnam and established 20 parts outlets basically in north and central Vietnam. These outlets can deliver parts to customers within 8 hours. If customers are in south Vietnam, parts can reach in 20 hours," Tang said, adding, "We value after-sales service as the fundamental to our operations in Vietnam."

Also, Yuchai has kept expanding its product scope to meet needs of Southeast Asian countries, add products and enhance the overall market competitiveness of its products. For instance, given that north Vietnam is an area producing sugarcane, Yuchai has launched new products like sugarcane combine and field transporter in this region, thereby constantly extending Yuchai's products to many regions and industries of Vietnam.

"By constantly communicating with consumers and meeting their power demands, Yuchai's foundation in the ASEAN market has been further consolidated, its customer relations have been further cemented and its market share has been further increased," said Wang Limin, vice general manager of Yuchai Machinery. Guided by the service concept of "fastness and sincerity", Yuchai has constantly stabilized the ASEAN market. In Vietnam alone, Yuchai has held a share of over 50 percent among domestic vehicles exported to Vietnam.

A series of actions have produced positive effects. Now the ASEAN market has become an integral part of Yuchai's overseas markets. Yuchai has established a total of 13 offices abroad, of which seven are in ASEAN and cover all ASEAN countries. Yuchai has a total of 98 service agents abroad, of which 39 are in the ASEAN market.

Early in 2007, Yuchai mapped out a strategy of internationalized development. In the future, guided by the business concept of internationalization, Yuchai will advance internationalization building in terms of "industrial distribution, capital operation, product market, management level and talent building" to achieve the vision of "building a world-famous brand and a large-sized international conglomerate." "Geographic advantage and fitting products will keep boost Yuchai's performance in the ASEAN market and Yuchai will continue extending its operations to the rest of the world on this basis," said Yan Ping, chairman of Yuchai Group.

(Li Chunmei/Li Wei Source: Peoples Daily Overseas)