Introduction: For Dongfeng Motor Group, the most obvious change in the performance of 2021 is to change the strength of the business and take advantage of the weak; the breaking of this situation is not only the impact of the industry environment, but also the factors of the company itself.
At the end of March, Dongfeng Motor Group announced its 2021 operating results; the next day, Dongfeng Group's shares opened low and went high, closing up 1.5%, this report card did not attract too much applause for the group in the stock market, and it also did not become a "fragrant feast" for securities institutions to compete for judgment.
So, as one of the six state-owned automobile groups, what is the operating performance of Dongfeng Motor Group in 2021? "The wind rises in the east", how powerful is it?
1) Sales volume, gross profit decreased, revenue, profit increased
Purely from the perspective of market performance, in 2021, Dongfeng Motor Group sold 2.775 million vehicles, down 3.3% year-on-year, the fourth consecutive year of decline, back to the level of seven years ago; however, for 2022, Dongfeng Motor Group still gave a sales target of 3.471 million vehicles, which means that compared with 2021, annual sales will soar by 25%; it also means that it will surpass the peak of 3.28 million units in 2017.
In the first quarter of this year, the group sold 732,000 vehicles, completing 21% of the annual sales target.
Although the annual sales volume fell for four consecutive years, the revenue of Dongfeng Motor Group increased for two consecutive years, reaching 113 billion yuan in 2021, an increase of 4.2% year-on-year; at the same time, the cost of sales increased by nearly 7% year-on-year, resulting in a 10% year-on-year decline in the group's gross profit to 14.19 billion yuan; the gross profit margin decreased by about 2 percentage points; from the perspective of profit indicators, Dongfeng Motor Group achieved a profit of 11.375 billion yuan in 2021, an increase of 7.6% year-on-year.
To put it simply, in the case of the decline in total sales of Dongfeng Motor Group in 2021, the revenue and profit during the year have gained growth, and the report card seems to be good.
However, it is worth noting that the Profit Attributable to the Group's joint ventures reached RMB11.8 billion in 2021, an increase of RMB2.3 billion over 2020, mainly due to the doubling of DPCA's sales from 50,000 units to 100,000 units, a loss of RMB652 million compared to the same period, while Dongfeng Honda's profit increased by RMB505 million over the same period last year; Dongfeng Motor (Wuhan) Co., Ltd. increased by RMB893 million over the same period last year, and the former Dongfeng Renault lost RMB893 million in 2020.
However, the Group's attributable profit from associated enterprises decreased by MOP1.156 billion to MOP1.804 billion year-on-year, mainly due to the contraction in investment income in PSA Group, which was as high as RMB1.953 billion in 2020, and according to the data as of February 22, 2022, Dongfeng Motor Group's shareholding in Stellantis Group has dropped to 3.17%.
As we all know, for a long time, Dongfeng Motor Group has two major Japanese joint venture car companies, Dongfeng Nissan and Dongfeng Honda, as the performance "old protector"; the sales volume of the two joint ventures in 2021 is about 1.829 million vehicles, accounting for 66% of the group's total sales, and the importance cannot be argued.
However, in the whole year of 2021, the cumulative sales of Dongfeng Nissan (including Venucia) and Dongfeng Honda declined by 11.04% and 10.4% respectively, which is not a positive signal. Combined with the data released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, China's passenger car sales in 2021 increased by 6.46% year-on-year, and the two Japanese car companies obviously did not keep up with the pace of the industry.
2) The situation of "business multiplication of strength and weakness" is reversed
As we all know, Dongfeng Motor Group started with commercial vehicles, and its performance in the field of commercial vehicles has been remarkable for many years. According to the data compiled by the automotive K-line statistics, from 2015 to 2020, the group's commercial vehicle business revenue has risen year by year, from the initial less than 40 billion yuan, all the way up to more than 80 billion yuan in 2020, and the proportion of total revenue has correspondingly increased from 28.8% in 2015 to 77% in 2021.
Under the law of trade-off, when the author is still worried that the proportion of Dongfeng Motor Group's passenger car revenue will soon be "swallowed" into single digits, the situation in 2021 will suddenly reverse.
According to the data disclosed in the financial report, in 2021, Dongfeng Motor Group sold 2.252 million passenger cars, generating revenue of 32.548 billion yuan; commercial vehicle sales of 522,000 units, generating revenue of 71.25 billion yuan. While commercial vehicles remain the big players, the share of the group's revenue fell to 63 percent for the first time in years, while the passenger car segment climbed to 28.8 percent for the first time.
Whether it is from the perspective of annual sales, the cumulative decline in passenger cars is less than the cumulative decline in commercial vehicles, or from the perspective of revenue changes, the performance of Dongfeng Motor Group's passenger car segment is stronger than that of the commercial vehicle segment; of course, the two are not absolutely comparable in terms of sales volume and revenue scale.
From the perspective of segment performance, according to the financial report data, in 2021, the performance of Dongfeng Motor Group's commercial vehicle division was 636 million yuan, and in 2020, which was hit hard by the epidemic, this value was as high as 2.5 billion yuan.
In 2021, the "blue card light truck" policy is expected to promote consumption wait-and-see, and the real estate industry is cold, which also intensifies the downward pressure on the commercial vehicle market. In the short term, the policy dividends that have supported the growth of commercial vehicles in recent years will be weakened, and the commercial vehicle market will also enter a period of deep adjustment.
Looking at Dongfeng Motor Group's passenger cars, the performance of Dongfeng Motor Group in 2021 was a loss of 6.387 billion yuan, refreshing the largest loss since the group recorded. Although it is well known that the group's passenger cars are "weak" without joint ventures and associated companies contributing profits, the losses are staggering.
Small holes are not blocked, big holes suffer hardships, and don't forget to think of danger in peace. For Dongfeng Group, the overall commercial vehicle industry is cold, and autonomous passenger cars are still weak, which is a problem that cannot be ignored.
3) Joint ventures also have difficult scriptures
It is undeniable that the main people carrying the banner of Dongfeng Motor Group's performance are two Japanese joint venture car companies. However, as mentioned above, the cumulative sales of the two Japanese car companies in 2021 have experienced double-digit declines.
The car K-line was once in the "Number Talk | In "Zhang Crazy" Dongfeng", the sales volume of Dongfeng Nissan and Dongfeng Honda has been deeply analyzed. In the 18th year of its establishment, the "million 7 consecutive" Dongfeng Nissan is not indestructible, the sales growth of the classic model Xuanyi is weak, and X-Trail has attracted a lot of controversy because of the three cylinders; at the same time, for Dongfeng Honda, it is also facing the reality of the decline in sales of its main models Civic and CR-V.
According to the data of the first quarter of this year, Dongfeng Nissan (including Venucia) sold 273,000 units, an increase of 5.55% year-on-year, dongfeng Honda reached 209,000 units, an increase of 2.94% year-on-year; and from the retail sales data released by the Association of Automobiles, Dongfeng Nissan retailed 240,000 vehicles, a year-on-year decrease of 16.9%; Dongfeng Honda retailed 169,000 units, a year-on-year decrease of 19.6%. The wholesale sales volume of manufacturers increased year-on-year, while the retail volume of terminals fell sharply, and it is not difficult to infer that the pressure faced by dealers should not be small.
Specific to the model, although Nissan Xuanyi led the way with 109,000 units in the first quarter, it decreased by 13.4% year-on-year; Honda CR-V retailed 56,000 units, down 21.8% year-on-year; XR-V retailed 35,000 units, down 17.8% year-on-year.
Let's look at Dongfeng Motor Group's other joint venture, DPCA, which has a sales volume of more than 100,000 vehicles in 2021, doubling year-on-year, and the data is eye-catching. In the first quarter of this year, DPCA sold 31,000 vehicles, with an average monthly sales volume of more than 10,000 vehicles, an increase of nearly 80% year-on-year.
For DPCA, it will face a new business arrangement, according to the listed company's March disclosure. In April, Dongfeng Motor Group acquired 25% and 50% of the shares of Dongfeng Peugeot Citroen Financial from PFN and DPLUS Auto, indirectly wholly-owned subsidiaries of Stellantis, respectively, making it a direct wholly-owned subsidiary of the Group, which may also pave the way for the new business arrangement of Dongfeng Peugeot Citroen Automobile in the later stage.
Although the Peugeot and Citroen brands "solo" under the company have not yet been officially announced, they have been spread, which is not necessarily a good thing for the two French brands.
According to the financial report of Stellantis Group, as part of its plan in 2019 to allocate 198 million euros to Dongfeng Peugeot Citroen to promote the brand in the next 18 years, in 2022, its investment in Dongfeng Peugeot Citroen will be no less than 16 million euros (about 112 million yuan).
4) The back wave is difficult to push the front wave
From the sales data, the group's high-end new energy brand Lantu sold 6791 vehicles in 2021, with the highest monthly delivery record of 3330 vehicles last year; and in the first quarter of this year, the cumulative sales of Lantu Automobile was only 3693 vehicles, with an average monthly sales of more than 1,000 vehicles. As of December 31, 2021, Landu Automobile has an annual production capacity of 110,000 units.
From the perspective of the technical path and market positioning adopted, Lantu directly benchmarked the Qianlang Ideal Car, but the latter delivered a total of 31,716 vehicles in the first quarter, which is more than 8 times the delivery volume of Lantu Automobile.
Although it is a bit one-sided and arbitrary to discuss the success or failure of only one model, from the current situation, the ideal ONE of "Pearl Jade in front" has laid a good market foundation and brand reputation for the follow-up models of ideal cars; and the follow-up models of Lantu Automobile may not be able to enjoy the market dividends accumulated by Lantu FREE.
Therefore, the second model of Lantu Automobile, the Lantu Dreamer, still has to rely on himself to "fight the country". However, for the Lantu Dreamer, which was postponed to the listing of mid-To-may, there are also many concerns in the market that it will repeat the mistakes of high and low.
First of all, although it is backed by Dongfeng Motor Group, at the high-end brand level, the group cannot provide much endorsement for Lantu Automobile, especially in the high-end MPV market, which may be the most important factor, such as everyone knows the "star nanny car" Toyota Alpha, which is the power of the brand.
Secondly, from the perspective of marketing, a high-end MPV priced at about 400,000 is high-profile and promotes acceleration performance, is this a deviation from user needs? If you pursue a strong sense of pushback, who will choose an MPV? Finally, the high-end MPV market is not actually a blue ocean, in addition to Alpha, there are Xena, Trumpchi M8, Odyssey, and then Extreme Kr and Weipai will also launch high-end MPV models...
LanTu is the vanguard of Dongfeng Motor Group's exploration of new tracks, but it always gives people the feeling of cruising between traditional car companies and technology companies, not bold and innovative enough, and somewhat vague about their positioning and dissemination. What Houlang Lantu needs to do most may be to reorganize itself from the management system and market level, and then find the position, sort out the playing style, and finally unswervingly advance.
Views of Autoskline：
In 2022, Dongfeng Motor Group will launch 4 new commercial vehicles to maintain its industry position in the field of China VI; in terms of passenger cars, more than 13 new products will be launched, including 5 independent brands, including Lantu Dreamer, Fengshen Haoji, etc., and 8 joint venture brands, including Dongfeng Nissan ARIYA, Dongfeng Honda e· NS1, the new generation CR-V, DPCA D78, etc.
Under the pressure of the switch of national regulations and the industry environment, the market for commercial vehicles in 2022 is not optimistic, and Dongfeng Motor Group has certain pressure to achieve 10% growth; at the same time, how to maintain stability in the passenger car sector, expand the Legal system, and strengthen autonomy are important issues that the group needs to solve.
In addition, it is worth mentioning that as an automobile group with a revenue scale of 100 billion, it is quite depressing to conceal the disclosure of research and development expenses. In the 2021 financial report, it only lightly mentioned that "R&D investment continued to increase, an increase of 8.4% year-on-year". The problem is that I have looked through the financial reports of recent years and have not found an exact figure on R&D expenses. When will we be able to take out the R&D expense list from the "other expenses" for shareholders to see?
As of December 31, 2021, Dongfeng Motor Group's cash and bank deposits reached 50.27 billion yuan, an increase of 2.611 billion yuan over the same period last year, with sufficient reserves, at least some people feel at ease, and the group still has time and strength to make changes.