Morgan car import to China The process of importing Morgan cars has now begun in earnest. On the 11th March the 6 Morgan cars, which comprise the first commercial consignment, docked in Tianjin after some 42 days at sea. On 19th March Erika and I traveled to Tianjin to drive the cars out of the containers. The Customs port is a vast warehouse complex on a spit in the Bohai sea. There are rows of cars waiting for clearing, or collection from this tax free zone. The amount of paperwork required to clear these cars is daunting. Prior to their arrival we had to demonstrate that we have a level 2 service partner, which includes registered paint shop. Our service partners in Beijing don't have a paint shop, but our customs agent has one that we can use. The Certificates of Conformity have to be completed which list all the details of the cars. I am concerned about the engine numbers being inconsistent. MMC say that the numbers are not all the same format - I can't believe that BMW's sometimes have 8 and sometimes 12 digits. If this isn't right - the Plus 8's will be held up in customs due to an administration error which could have been avoided. Every day in customs is chargeable. Our first issue has been the Vehicle Identification Number on the chassis of the cars. Modern-day Vehicle Identification Number systems are based on two related standards, originally issued by the  International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in 1979 and 1980; ISO 3779  and ISO 3780,  respectively. Compatible but somewhat different implementations of these ISO standards have been adopted by the  European Union and the  United States of America.   Apparently China appears to be adopting the VIN used by the USA, and we may have to recalculate all the VIN's for our cars.  

It is quite easy to understand why there is a lot of cash in the Chinese banking system; it is required to inject a great deal of cash to start  a company, it can only come from designated sources, and taking the money out of ones own accounts is onerous. Bank of China The Bank of China declared our Capital Account open on 14th November, the account for foreign funds to be injected to the Chinese Wofe. A foreign investor must inject 20% of their working capital into this capital account within 3 months of company incorporation. In our case Sept 12. I have therefore just under a month to inject US$160,000. I made an expensive mistake in our incorporation documents - for some reason I nominated the currency as US$ instead of GBP. I have had to use GBP to buy US$ in HSBC Hong Kong to remit to Beijing Bank of China funds which will be converted to RMB. When I remit funds to Morgan Motor in the UK, it will have to be in GBP. An expensive lesson on reading the fine print. To make payments to Morgan Motor Company (MMC) is an exercise in patient paperwork, which is not my forte. The Bank must have our dealer agreement, duly chopped (it is emboss stamped not ink chopped which is causing an issue), and car invoice precisely with the names of the bank accounts, two companies and dealer agreement all matching. If I ever start another company, I will ensure that the company name is very short and easy to spell - Malvern Morgan Cars (Beijing) Co. Ltd. was too long for the HSBC internet banking forms and the absence of the final 'd' meant that the funds were rejected by the Bank of China. Once we have injected the funds required we can proceed to the capital verification stage. This is to prove that we have invested the 20% of our registered capital. The balance is required over 3 years. This procedure takes 6-8 days. With this verification we can then apply for the import license for the cars from Morgan. This money can then be transferred to our RMB current account for certain types of usage including renovation, salaries and inventory. Assuming that we one day make a profit, the repatriation of this money and exchange for foreign currency will be another exercise in patience. As we are a long way from profitability or cash flow positive, I shall worry about that later. Today the showroom work was allowed to start again after the Communist Party Congress. Our appointment as dealers for Morgan cars was November 2011. I had submitted our request to be dealers in December 2010. The wheels of industry are rolling, but not not at great speed. New Proud Owners Meanwhile the saddest part of all was the departure of our beloved Roadster. In order to finance the business I had to take the decision to sell her. As a foreigner we can only bring in US$50,000 per year and my investment in the Morgan business exceeded that long ago. Only now with the capital account could we bring in sufficient money for our investment in the roadshow, showroom rental , legal expenses and paying our own living expenses. We had believed that she was the first Morgan in China, only to find that there was one which arrived 6 months earlier in Beijing belonging to a Chinese pop singer called Yang Cun. As the pregnant woman eased into the Roadster, memories of Amity and Halo in the back seats, and Erika laughing as we sped through the Britanny countryside with the roof down came flooding back, enough for my eyes to swell. Erika overhead the man driving the car make a comment about the length of the bonnet, only for the woman to say, "it is no longer than the tractor you are used to driving." It isn't only the rich and famous who are going to be driving Morgan cars in China.    

  On July 5th Morgan cars had their south China debut. Hosted by our partners the Autoculture Committee of Guangdong and the British Consulate in Guangdong, the Morgan cars were on show to the media and some 200 local guests. The highlight was being on stage with Alistair Morgan, an old friend from Beijing and Mr Koh Nan Nan who is the Chairman of the Autoculture Committee, amongst other business ventures. The cars were on display at the Perle shopping centre in front of the Louis Vuitton and Hermes stores. The saddest part was that we said "zaijian" to our Roadster - which was sold to the glamorous president of a media company in Guangzhou.   To see more images of the day:  

The Morgan had an opportunity to celebrate the Royal Wedding at the invitation of the UKTI. She sat pride of place alongside an Aston Martin Rapide, Jaguar XJS and a JCB digger. HE Mr Sebastian Wood CMG was even tempted behind the wheel, joined by his wife Sirinat. There wasn't time for a quick spin as some 1000 guests were due to arrive; but the offer is there. Of course I would say it, but the Morgan did appear to attract more attention in spite of the inclement British weather. Here is a selection of photographs taken of the V6 Roadster outside the British Ambassador's Residence, in Beijing. To view the slideshow click the photo: