Gemilang wins largest bus body kit contract from Uzbekistan

GML chairman and CEO Pang Chong Yong

JOHOR BARU: Gemilang International Ltd (GML), an Asia-leading bus and bus body manufacturer, has secured its single largest order from Uzbekistan to supply 190 bus body kits, less than a month after it won its biggest order to deliver fully-electric school buses to California, US.

“Uzbekistan is one of our six focus markets for 2022, apart from the US, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong. The latest contract is a repeat order from Uzbekistan and is recognised as a springboard for us to grow further in the region.

“We are pleased as this repeat order at a bigger quantity implicitly shows the trust from the country in Malaysian craftmanship and product quality,” chairman and chief executive officer Pang Chong Yong said in a statement.

The contract to deliver 190 completely knocked down (CKD) bus body kits was awarded in February 2022 and is expected to be completed in October 2022.

Since 2015, GML has delivered more than 160 bus body kits to Uzbekistan, making the country an important growth market for the group.

The Hong Kong-listed GML expects the latest contract to be a major revenue contributor this year.

“Looking ahead, depending on future tenders from Uzbekistan, it is our plan to deliver high-quality products consistently and further build a strong and competitive presence in the market.

“GML is actively working on securing new projects in the aforementioned six countries. In addition, many tender activities have been delayed in the past two years since the pandemic and we wish to see tenders coming from our target markets this year as the economy is recovering,” Pang said.

“With commitments from many neighbouring countries to reduce and eventually neutralise carbon emission, we expect more electrification in transportations and GML is ready to offer environmentally-friendly solutions for the transition.

“As Malaysia is our base, we hope that our continued growth would allow more economic advantages for the country over the long run such as increased job opportunities, capital investments and innovations in the emerging EV segment,” he said.