Chinese automotive manufacturer SAIC Motor reported its first annual net profit decline since it listed its stocks in 2011. The company's 2019 net profits attributable to shareholders had declined by more than 28.9 percent when compared to its profits in the previous year.
According to its annual earnings report released last week, SAIC Motors managed to rake in 25.6 billion yuan or roughly $3.36 billion for 2019. Its revenues also dropped by 6.88 percent year-on-year to 826.53 billion yuan.
For 2019, SAIC Motor sold a total of 6.24 million vehicles, 11.5 percent lower than the number of vehicles it had sold in the previous year. Among its different vehicle segments, its passenger vehicles suffered the largest fall with a 12.7 percent year-on-year decline to only 5.38 million units in 2019.
All of the Shanghai-based automaker's joint venture companies also reported significant sales declines last year. Joint venture firm Shanghai General Motors reported a 19.42 percent decline in sales last year. SAIC-GM also reported an 18.78 percent decline in sales for the same period. Meanwhile, its joint venture firm SAIC Volkswagen reported a slightly 3.07 decline in sales, fairing slightly better than its other counterparts.
The company's relatively poor performance for 2019 is expected to continue this year, with the coronavirus pandemic already wreaking havoc on its bottom line for the first quarter. According to SAIC Motor, sales numbers for the first quarter have fallen by more than 55.7 percent when compared to the same period last year. The company only managed to sell around 679,000 units during the period, its worse performance for the quarter. SAIC stated that it expects its sales number to fall between 8.1 percent and 11.6 percent this year.
SAIC Motor did report marginal growth in its new energy vehicle sales last year. For 2019, the company sold around 185,000 new energy vehicles, a 30.4 percent jump when compared to the number of units it sold in the previous year. Exported vehicles also jumped by 26.5 percent last year to around 350,000 units, making SAIC Motor one of the leading car exporters in the country.
Along with the rest of China's auto market, SAIC Motor's sales had been plagued by the lack of demand for vehicles throughout the months-long lockdowns in several provinces across China. According to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, car sales for the first quarter had plummeted by more than 42.4 percent.
For 2019, car sales in China fell by 8.2 percent overall. Industry experts expect that number to be significantly higher this year given the ongoing global health and economic crisis. Last month, car sales dropped by 43.4 percent in China, a slight improvement from the 79 percent decline recorded in February.
