Volvo shipping out XC40 SUVs made in Zhejiang province to South Africa

Swedish premium carmaker Volvo now sells four China-made models globally, as a cargo ship loaded with XC40 SUVs is sailing from Shanghai to South Africa.

The ship is expected to arrive in the harbor of Durban in mid-June.

Volvo said in a statement last week that the model will be later exported to countries in other continents, including the Americas and Oceania.

Volvo, which is owned by China's Geely Holding Group, has factories in China, Europe and the United States.

China, which is its largest market, is now home to three Volvo car plants, one engine factory, one design center and one research and development facility, hiring more than 8,000 employees.

Volvo is now selling China-made vehicles in around 80 countries and regions.

It is also the only global premium carmaker to produce vehicles in China and then sell them in Europe and the United States.

The carmaker started to produce the XC40 at the Luqiao plant in Zhejiang province in 2019.

"Demand for the XC40 has exceeded our most optimistic expectations," Volvo CEO Hakan Samuelsson said in an interview at the time.

"Building (it) ... in Luqiao creates extra capacity, adds flexibility to our global manufacturing network," he added.

Besides Luqiao, Volvo is producing the XC40 at its plant in Ghent, Belgium.

The model is based on a platform Volvo developed with Geely to share the costs of developing and manufacturing a vehicle.

The platform, called Compact Modular Architecture, is shared by vehicles produced by sister brands that include Lynk& Co.

Volvo started to export China-made models in 2015. These were S60 Inscription sedans made at its Chengdu plant in Sichuan province and sold in the United States.

Two years later, the flagship S90 sedans made at its Daqing plant in Heilongjiang province were shipped to Europe.

In July 2019, cargo trains began transporting XC60 SUVs from Chengdu to the UK and other European countries, which marked a new milestone after Volvo's acquisition by Geely from Ford in 2010.

"In 10 years, Volvo Cars has grown from a niche Swedish marque into a global premium carmaker," said Yuan Xiaolin, president and CEO of Volvo Car Asia Pacific in an interview earlier this year.

In 2019, the company delivered more than 700,000 vehicles around the globe. Sales revenue soared to 274.1 billion kronor ($27.45 billion) and operating profits reached $1.43 billion. Back in 2009, Volvo posted a revenue of $12.4 billion in 2009 by selling 334,000 cars, and recorded a pretax loss of $653 million.

"Now we are moving from global revitalization up to the new goal of global development," Yuan added.