Affected by the "price war" and slowing export growth, SAIC Motor's performance in the first half of the year declined.

On August 29, the 2024 semi-annual report released by Shanghai Automobile Group Co., Ltd.(SAIC Motor, 600104) showed that in the first half of this year, SAIC Motor achieved total operating income of 284.686 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 12.82%; net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies was 6.628 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 6.45%.

In the first half of this year, China's auto market experienced considerable fluctuations due to the disturbance of price wars. SAIC Motor said that on the one hand, due to insufficient effective demand, the growth rate of sales in the domestic market has been under pressure and downward. At the same time, the "price war" has caused consumers to wait and see, and the industry's terminal inventories are higher than normal levels; On the other hand, although automobile exports and new energy vehicle production and sales have maintained rapid growth, contributing significantly to the steady growth of the industry, due to the influence of international trade protectionism, the growth rate of new energy vehicle exports has slowed down significantly, industry competition has further intensified, and business operating pressure has continued to increase.

In terms of sales, the Production and Sales Express showed that SAIC Motor sold a total of 1.827 million vehicles in the first half of the year, a year-on-year decline of 11.81%. Among them, sales of new energy vehicles were 461,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 23.9%; overseas sales were 487,900 units, a year-on-year decrease of 8.54%.

However, it should be pointed out that in the first half of the year, SAIC optimized its production and sales structure, and the figure of 1.827 million vehicles was the wholesale sales of entire vehicles. SAIC Motor data shows that its terminal deliveries in the first half of the year were 2.115 million units. Among them, SAIC's terminal delivery of new energy vehicles was 524,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 29.9%; and the terminal delivery of overseas markets was 548,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 12.7%.

SAIC Group said that in conjunction with the national and local "trade-in" subsidy policy, and through marketing such as market promotion, value-preserving repurchase, and financial incentives, SAIC Group has focused on terminal retail. In the first half of the year, the number was nearly 300,000 vehicles higher than the batch sales, and channel inventory pressure has been alleviated.

In terms of going overseas, SAIC Motor encountered an EU countervailing investigation. On August 20, the European Commission disclosed a draft decision on imposing a final countervailing duty on imports of pure electric vehicles from China, including a 36.3% countervailing duty on SAIC Motor.

In this regard, SAIC Motor emphasized in its semi-annual report that on the one hand, the company strives to consolidate base markets such as Western Europe and South America, accelerate the expansion of emerging markets such as Eastern Europe, and continue to improve the construction of overseas service systems. On the other hand, it actively responded to the EU countervailing investigation, issued a public statement as soon as possible, conveyed confidence in medium-and long-term development in Europe, accelerated the work of selecting sites and building factories in Europe, and compiled data and collected materials to the European Commission. Defense.

A few days ago, SAIC Motor President Jia Jianxu made it clear in a public speech,"SAIC's sales in Europe this year will not be lower than last year. Now our enthusiasm for HEV (hybrid) products exceeds our imagination, and some orders will not be delivered until the first quarter of next year."