Many people are crying out for trouble this year, and car companies are no exception. Recently, SAIC Motor released its financial report for the first half of 2022. In the first half of the year, it achieved operating income of 315.993 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 13.69%; net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies It was 6.910 billion yuan, down 48.10% year-on-year; the net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies, excluding non-recurring gains and losses, was 6.108 billion yuan, down 48.47% year-on-year, almost halved.
As for the reason for the year-on-year decrease in net profit and non-net profit, SAIC Group explained that it was because the rebound of the epidemic had a serious impact on the automobile industry chain and supply chain, resulting in a decrease in the company's sales revenue. At the same time, the tight supply of chips and the sharp increase in the prices of raw materials such as power batteries have also had an adverse impact on product gross profit margins.
In the first half of this year, due to the impact of the epidemic, many car companies in the Shanghai area suspended production and reduced production. Among them, SAIC Group, as the leading local automobile company in Shanghai, was the first to bear the brunt. Immediately after the epidemic, high temperatures occurred in the Sichuan and Chongqing regions. In order to protect people's livelihood, power rationing measures were implemented for some companies. Many auto parts companies are located in the Sichuan and Chongqing regions, resulting in tight parts supply and affecting the production rhythm of SAIC Motor.
At the World Power Battery Conference on July 21 this year, Zeng Qinghong, chairman of GAC Group, publicly criticized CATL at the meeting, saying that car companies were working for CATL. Zeng Qinghong openly criticized in his speech, "Currently, the cost of power batteries accounts for 60% of the total cost of cars. Aren't we working for CATL now?" Zeng Qinghong said that the price of lithium carbonate has increased more than 10 times this year, and price pressure has directly led to New energy vehicles are experiencing price increases.
Objectively speaking, there is nothing wrong with the reasons listed by SAIC for the decline in net profit, but these are all external factors, and SAIC avoids talking about internal factors. SAIC Group currently owns SAIC-Volkswagen , SAIC-GM , SAIC-GM-Wuling and other joint venture brands. In the first half of this year, only SAIC-Volkswagen achieved sales growth, while the other joint venture brands all experienced varying degrees of decline.
In the first half of the year, SAIC-GM's sales fell by 12.91% year-on-year, of which the Buick brand fell by 15.9%, the Cadillac brand fell by 32.23%, and only the Chevrolet brand withstood the pressure and bucked the trend, rising by 21.83%, but it was helpless for teammate Tai Cai. move. SAIC-GM-Wuling's sales also declined in the first half of the year, down 5.94% year-on-year, and a large part of SAIC-GM-Wuling's sales were Hongguang MINIEV, which had little profit. SAIC-GM-Wuling's net profit fell 15.01% year-on-year to only 3.30 billion.
Among the joint venture brands of SAIC Group, the biggest laggard is SAIC Skoda. In the first half of this year, the sales volume was only 23,755 units, less than the sales volume of other brands in a month. At present, there are only 7 models of Skoda on sale. The highest-selling model is only the Kamiq GT with 1133 units. The lowest-selling model is Xindong with only 1 unit sold. The sales volume of the new Kodiaq , which was launched not long ago, was only 514 units. This result also declared the failure of the new Kodiaq model.
Editor’s comment
Overall, SAIC is still a veritable “little moneymaker”, but the low profit margins of SAIC-GM-Wuling and the dismal sales of SAIC Skoda are all problems that SAIC needs to solve. The problem of SAIC-GM-Wuling can also be solved by launching higher-priced models, but there is really no way to sell Skoda if it cannot be sold. Maybe SAIC Group is already planning to divest Skoda.
