21 listed car companies in the first quarter of 2022: passenger car companies are happy to report more Commercial vehicle companies are in dismal light

Economic Observer reporter Wang Shuaiguo

As of May 5, 21 of the 28 domestic vehicle listed companies have disclosed the first quarter performance report of 2022. On the whole, the performance of passenger car companies is overall better than that of commercial vehicle companies. Among the passenger car companies, BYD and Changan Automobile performed eye-catchingly, and the net profit growth rate of the two companies in the first quarter reached 240.59% and 431.45% respectively.

Among commercial vehicle companies, only One company, Jinlong Automobile, achieved a positive net profit in the first quarter and increased year-on-year. Among other enterprises, Yaxing Bus directly changed from profit to loss of nearly 40 million yuan, Ankai Bus loss more than doubled, FAW Jiefang, Foton Motor and Dongfeng Motor's net profit fell by more than 50%, and the overall performance was dismal.

Specifically, among the 12 passenger car companies that have disclosed a quarterly report, there are 5 companies that have achieved double growth in revenue and net profit: BYD, GAC Group, Changan Automobile, Lifan Technology, and Haima Automobile (loss narrowed); there are 4 companies whose revenue and net profit have increased and decreased: Great Wall Motor, Xiaokang Shares, Beiqi Blue Valley, and Zotye Automobile (revenue decline, loss narrowing); there are 3 companies with double decline in revenue and net profit: SAIC Motor, Jianghuai Automobile, and Beijing Automobile.

Among the 9 commercial vehicle companies that have disclosed quarterly reports, there are 2 companies that have achieved double growth in revenue and net profit: Jinlong Automobile and Zhongtong Bus (loss narrowing); 1 enterprise that has not increased revenue: Yaxing Bus; and 6 companies with double decline in revenue and net profit: Jiangling Motors, FAW Jiefang, Yutong Bus, Foton Automobile, Ankai Bus, and Dongfeng Motor.

BYD and Changan Automobile performed prominently

On April 19, Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the Federation, pointed out in a post on the WeChat public account of the Association that the national passenger car market in 2022 was affected by the downturn in consumption, and the cumulative retail sales of the national passenger car market in the first quarter were 4.915 million units, down 4.5% year-on-year, and the overall trend was lower than expected. Among them, the sales of traditional fuel vehicles were 3.85 million units, down 18% year-on-year, the domestic retail sales of new energy vehicles were 1.070 million units, an increase of 146.6% year-on-year, and the sales of traditional fuel vehicles and new energy vehicles formed a K-shaped trend.

Although the overall performance of the passenger car market in the first quarter was not good, some car companies still achieved good market results. Among them, BYD, as a leading enterprise in the sales of new energy vehicles in China, has gone all the way up with the dongfeng performance of new energy.

BYD's first quarter report of 2022 shows that the company achieved revenue of 66.825 billion yuan, an increase of 63.02% year-on-year; net profit of 808 million yuan, an increase of 240.59% year-on-year. For the reasons for the change in performance, BYD explained in the previous performance forecast that in the first quarter of 2022, the new energy automobile industry as a whole continued the momentum of rapid growth. The Group's sales of new energy vehicles have hit a record high, and the market share has continued to rise, achieving rapid growth year-on-year, driving a significant improvement in profitability, and to a certain extent hedging the profit pressure brought about by the rise in upstream raw material prices.

The data shows that from January to March, BYD has sold 286329 new energy vehicles, an increase of 422.97% year-on-year. Among them, BYD's plug-and-mix models performed strongly, with cumulative sales of 141514 units from January to March, with a cumulative year-on-year growth rate of 857.40%.

It is worth mentioning that on April 3, BYD Automobile's official Weibo released a message saying that according to its strategic development needs, it will stop the production of fuel vehicles from March 2022. In the future, BYD will focus on pure electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles in the automotive segment. As a result, BYD has become the first domestic traditional car company to stop production of fuel vehicles.

Another outstanding company is Changan Automobile. According to the first quarter report of 2022, Changan Automobile's main revenue was 34.576 billion yuan, up 7.96% year-on-year; the net profit attributable to the mother was 4.536 billion yuan, up 431.45% year-on-year, exceeding the net profit of 2021 (3.552 billion yuan).

However, it should be pointed out that 2.13 billion yuan of the 4.536 billion yuan came from the equity income of Changan Automobile's subsidiary Avita Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Avita"), so after deducting this part of the income and other non-recurring gains and losses, Changan Automobile deducted a non-net profit of 2.27 billion yuan, an increase of 215.24% year-on-year.

Even after excluding the proceeds from the equity transfer, Changan Automobile's net profit has still achieved a substantial increase in sales without a significant increase. In this regard, Zhang Deyong, chief accountant of Changan Automobile, said at the performance briefing that the main reason is the continuous optimization of the product structure, the focus of resources on high-value models, the steady improvement of product gross profit margins, and the steady enhancement of the profitability of independent products. According to the data, changan automobile's gross profit margin in the first quarter increased from 16.64% last year to 18.21%.

In addition, GAC Group achieved revenue of 23.145 billion yuan in the first quarter, an increase of 45.67% year-on-year. Net profit was 3.009 billion yuan, an increase of 27.17% year-on-year. GAC Group said that the increase in revenue was mainly due to the increase in revenue caused by the substantial increase in sales of its own brand vehicles in the reporting period, especially the sales volume of Aian new energy models increased by 1.5 times year-on-year.

According to the announcement of production and sales data released by GAC Group, the company's cumulative sales of automobiles from January to March were 608167 units, an increase of 22.48% year-on-year. Among them, the cumulative sales of new energy vehicles were 52,819 units, an increase of 144.80% year-on-year.

SAIC Motor and Great Wall have been greatly affected by the epidemic

As a Shanghai-based SAIC Group that has recently attracted outside attention, its first-quarter performance was affected by the epidemic. SAIC Motor's first quarter report shows that in the first quarter of 2022, the total revenue reached 182.471 billion yuan, down 3.5% year-on-year; the net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies was 5.516 billion yuan, down 19.44% year-on-year.

For the decline in net profit attributable to the mother, at the performance briefing meeting on May 5, Wei Yong, vice president and financial director of SAIC Motor, explained that one is the high cost of raw materials, the second is the increase in assets and credit impairment in the current period, and the third is that management expenses, research and development expenses, etc. have increased over the same period last year.

It is worth noting that Wei Yong did not mention the impact of sales. In fact, throughout the first quarter, SAIC's sales volume increased. According to the data, SAIC Motor's cumulative vehicle sales in the first quarter were 1.22 million units, an increase of 6.84% year-on-year, and production was 1.27 million units, an increase of 5.52% year-on-year.

At the above-mentioned performance briefing, SAIC Motor told investors that as of the end of April, the Shanghai base of the vehicle company has basically resumed to single-shift production, and the follow-up company will continue to focus on promoting the recovery of production capacity and strive to make up for the losses caused by the epidemic in the shortest possible time. SAIC Motor admitted that the impact of the Shanghai epidemic on the company's production and sales in March was about 20%, and the impact expanded in April.

Another company affected by the epidemic is Great Wall Motors, which had to suspend production in the middle of April and mid-term, and Great Wall's tank 300 models had to be suspended due to suppliers running out of stock. According to the financial report, Great Wall Motor achieved operating income of 33.619 billion yuan in the first quarter, an increase of 8.04% year-on-year; net profit attributable to listed shareholders was 1.634 billion yuan, down 0.34% year-on-year. This is the third consecutive quarter of net profit decline for Great Wall Motors after the third and fourth quarters of 2021.

The decline in Great Wall Motor's profit is mainly due to the decline in its sales, and the data released by Great Wall Motor shows that the cumulative sales volume in the first quarter of this year was 283,500 units, down 16.32% year-on-year. However, The average selling price and profit of Great Wall Motors' bicycles increased year-on-year, which to some extent reversed the decline in net profit. In the first quarter, the average price of Great Wall Motor's bicycles was 119,000 yuan, an increase of 29.12% year-on-year; its average bicycle profit was 0.46 million yuan, an increase of 16.62% year-on-year.

Different from Great Wall Motors, although the sales volume of Xiaokang Shares and Beiqi Blue Valley increased significantly, due to the increase in product research and development investment, the increase in marketing channel construction fees and sales service fees, and the substantial increase in marketing expenses, the losses of the two companies continued to increase in the case of revenue growth or even doubling.

Some industry insiders said that chip shortages, raw material prices and other issues are common problems faced by all car companies, in this case, some car companies have a sharp rise in performance, some car companies have poor performance, reflecting that there is a big difference between the strength and weakness of the whole vehicle companies in the supply chain control and raw material price negotiations.

Cui Dongshu said that looking forward to the national passenger car market in the second quarter, it is facing a more complex and difficult environment, especially the huge loss of the automotive industry chain temporarily stationary caused by the outbreak of the epidemic in Shanghai, and the impact of secondary parts supply cuts will seriously affect sales in the second quarter.

Commercial vehicle companies are "wailing"

Due to the impact of the epidemic, commercial vehicle companies closely related to economic activities performed poorly overall in the first quarter. Among the 9 commercial vehicle companies, only 2 companies achieved double growth in revenue and net profit, and one of them had a negative net profit, but the loss margin was narrowed. In addition, there are 7 car companies, and the net profit has dropped sharply.

According to the 2022 quarterly report of FAW Jiefang, the leader of commercial trucks, the company's main revenue was 15.156 billion yuan, down 66.39% year-on-year; the net profit attributable to the mother was 452 million yuan, down 74.71% year-on-year. In this regard, FAW Jiefang did not explain too much, only saying that the decrease in revenue was mainly due to the decrease in sales. FAW Jiefang's previously disclosed sales data showed that the company's sales in the first quarter were only 16,876 vehicles, a decrease of 65% year-on-year.

In the field of buses, due to the decline in sales, the performance of many companies has declined. Among them, the production volume and sales volume of Yutong Bus, a leading enterprise, fell by more than 30% in the first quarter, resulting in the company's operating income of 3.526 billion yuan during the reporting period, a year-on-year decline of 2.84%; the net profit loss attributable to the shareholders of the listed company was 116 million yuan, a slight increase over the loss of the same period last year. Yaxing Bus changed from a profit of 1.1394 million yuan in the same period last year to a loss of 43.6416 million yuan, and the loss of Ankai Bus more than doubled to 39.993 million.

Golden Dragon Automobile has become the only car company that mainly engages in buses to achieve both revenue and net profit. In the first quarter, Golden Dragon Automobile achieved operating income of 2.932 billion yuan, an increase of 9.02% year-on-year; net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies was 3.8766 million yuan, an increase of 16.47% year-on-year.

Golden Dragon Automobile said that the main reason for the increase in net profit was the increase in revenue and the increase in sales and revenue of large and medium-sized customers, which led to an increase in gross profit margin year-on-year. According to the data, from January to March 2022, Jinlong Automobile sold 9390 buses, down 4.00% year-on-year, but the cumulative sales of large buses were 2,160 units, an increase of 12.50% year-on-year. In addition, under the premise of sales growth, Zhongtong Bus also achieved a year-on-year increase in total operating income of 30.9% year-on-year, and the net profit loss narrowed slightly.

Among several other commercial vehicle companies, the net profits of Foton Motor, Dongfeng Motor and Jiangling Motors fell by 63.46%, 56.55% and 30.11% respectively, respectively, and their corresponding sales fell by 30.79%, 14.21% and 11.56% year-on-year. Foton Motor said that the sales volume of commercial vehicle products in the reporting period fell by 30.79% year-on-year, and the investment income of joint ventures and associated enterprises decreased year-on-year, resulting in a year-on-year decrease in net profit attributable to the mother of 235 million yuan. Jiangling Motors claimed that the decline in net profit was mainly due to the decline in sales and the increase in the cost of chips and raw materials.

In the face of the ongoing COVID-19 epidemic, domestic car companies will still encounter many problems such as supply chain disruption, logistics obstruction, and rising raw material prices. The industry expects that in the whole year of 2022, the difficulties faced by vehicle companies will be more complicated.