Summary: Reported business returns and net profits for listed Chinese automobile enterprises

Gasgoo.com (Shanghai) - Increasingly fierce competition and declining sales in the Chinese automobile market have taken their toll on the account books of domestic automobile manufacturers. According to statistics collected by Gasgoo.com (Chinese), combined business returns for China's 22 publicly traded automobile enterprises grew just 0.9 percent over the first half of the year. Combined net profits, meanwhile, decreased three percent, with around two-thirds of the companies seeing their net profits fall from 2011. The average net profit rate for the 22 manufacturers was 4.8 percent, 0.1 percent less than the figure reported a year ago.

Only seven manufacturers managed to maintain positive year-on-year growth for their net profits over the six month period. Among them, Beiqi Foton and FAW Xiali reported impressively high year-on-year net profit growth rates of 159.9 percent and 96 percent, respectively. Truck manufacturer Foton's rise in net profits is mainly due to the 2.09 billion yuan ($330.69m) it gained outside of vehicles sales. The majority of this revenue came from the certification of its assets with new joint venture partner Daimler. Foton's net profit rate rose from 2.3 percent in the first half of 2011 to seven percent in the first half of this year. FAW Xiali, meanwhile, benefited from increased investments from Tianjin FAW Toyota, which resulted in its net profits almost doubling from 2011 to 2012.

Hebei-based Great Wall also managed to sustain year-on-year net profit growth of 29.9 percent. Great Wall's net profit rate was 12.9 percent, slightly higher than the 12.8 percent reported last year. Great Wall's sales have continued to grow 20 percent over the six month period, with a total of 262,000 vehicles sold.

Bus manufacturers Yutong Coach and ZhongTong Group, as well as own brand manufacturer Geely, also reported positive net profit growth rates.

The remaining fifteen manufacturers all saw their net profits decrease over the six month duration. Worth noting is that FAW Car and bus manufacturer Yaxing Coach both reported deficits over the first half of this year. BYD's net profits fell over 94 percent. Shandong-based Sinotruck's net profits also decreased almost 90 percent. Finally, own brands Dongfeng and Haima's net profits more than halved over the same period of time.