Bell Helicopter upbeat on Southeast Asia and China
SINGAPORE: Bell Helicopter, a United States-based commercial and military helicopter manufacturer, sees huge sales potential in Southeast Asia and China this year.
Bell Helicopter senior vicepresident of international sales Patrick Moulay said the company was expecting to maintain its global order book at over 70 per cent this year, with most clients coming from Southeast Asia and China.
“We are very happy if we can sustain the level of orders this year similar to last year. In 2017, Asia Pacific, including Southeast Asia and China, has taken more orders compared with the entire world, including the US and Europe,” said Moulay at the Singapore Airshow 2018, here, yesterday.
The global helicopter industry saw a boom last year after suffering steep decline in orders in the last three years due to depressed mature markets in the US and Europe as well as the slump in the oil and gas industry.
However, Moulay said the sector had been growing fast since last year largely due to the Emergency Medical Service (EMS) segment, particularly in Asia Pacific and China, as they are starting to build their own medical helicopter networks.
Last year alone, he said there were more than 200 orders for the company’s helicopters coming from China.
Moving forward, the firm would be focusing on selling more helicopters in China and Southeast Asia, particularly in Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines.
“The boom of Chinese market is happening in front of our eyes and Southeast Asia is an incredible region,” said Moulay,
As for Malaysia, Moulay said Bell Helicopter would re-think of its strategy in the country so that it could be one of its key markets in the future.
“Malaysia has one of the strongest economies and it has a very big helicopter market. But we are not as successful here as I wish it to be. We need to think what other infrastructures that we could build in Malaysia to support our business here,” he said.