Results highlights

(25 August 2021, Hong Kong) – CIMC Vehicles (Group) Co., Ltd. (“CIMC Vehicles” or the “Group”, Stock code: 301039.SZ/01839.HK), the world’s leading high-end semi-trailers and specialty vehicles manufacturer, today announced its unaudited interim results for the year ended 30 June 2021 (the “reporting period”). 

CIMC Vehicles achieved an “A+H” dual listing in the first half of 2021. The Group performed well in various business sectors, lead to excellent growth in total revenue. During the reporting period, the company achieved record high total operating income of 17.55 billion (unit: RMB, the same below), an increase of 57.3% year-on-year (YoY); net profit of 0.76 billion, an increase of 9.2% YoY; earnings per share of 0.39, an increase of RMB0.03 YoY; and a weighted average return on equity (ROE) of 7.1%, up 0.2 percentage points year-on-year.

At the same time, CIMC Vehicles announced its 2021 interim dividend distribution plan to distribute an interim special dividend of RMB 0.3 per shares to all shareholders.

Global Recovery for Transportation & Logistics and Manufacturing Industries: Global Semi-trailer Business Booming  

Based on a solid foundation of "intercontinental operations" developed over a number of years and "local manufacturing" through its subsidiaries, CIMC Vehicles has maximized the production and assembly capacities, global supply chain management, and global logistics distribution of its 23 manufacturing plants and 10 assembly plants around the world – and its global semi-trailer business has grown significantly. In the first half of 2021, revenues for CIMC Vehicles' global semi-trailer business grew to 8.39 billion, an increase of 51.1% YoY.

Revenue for its semi-trailer business in the China market reached 4.96 billion, accounting for 59.1% of total global revenue for this business. During the reporting period, CIMC Vehicles actively seized development opportunities in van transportation, and revenue for its semi-trailer business in the China market continued to grow with a YoY increase of 66.3%.

The performance of CIMC Vehicles in overseas markets was also outstanding. During the reporting period, the COVID-19 Pandemic was gradually brought under control, and the economic recovery led to growing demand in global logistics and transportation. Seizing opportunities created by the market rebound, CIMC Vehicles improved the performance of its semi-trailer business in North America and Europe by optimizing the layout of production lines and supply chains. Revenue from North American and European markets increased by 10.5% and 66.0%, respectively. Emerging markets such as Thailand and Vietnam have also grown strongly.

To deal with rising global commodity and raw material prices, CIMC Vehicles actively adjusted and upgraded the EPS (Electronic Procurement System) strategy for global supply chain management, further increased the intensity and scale of centralized procurement, to control procurement costs of raw materials.

In addition, CIMC Vehicles promoted the modularization and digitalization of product design in all aspects, advanced the digital design and offline simulation of production lines, built a new retail platform to get closer to buyers and users.

According to the Global Trailer’s top global OEM ranking list for semi-trailer manufacturers announced in 2020, CIMC Vehicles was ranked 1st in the world for eight consecutive years in terms of production volume for semi-trailer manufacturing.

"14th Five-Year Plan" Creates a New Paradigm for Infrastructure Construction: Specialty Vehicles Business in China Experiences Strong Demand

Another major business of CIMC Vehicles – producing truck bodies for specialty vehicles and selling fully-assembled specialty vehicles –opened a new window of opportunity.

The truck bodies for specialty vehicles business of CIMC Vehicles has two main areas: manufacturing truck bodies for urban dump trucks, and the production and sales of fully-assembled vehicles of concrete mixer. During the reporting period, CIMC Vehicles benefited from continuous growth in domestic infrastructure investment which created strong demand for specialty vehicles in the China market. Revenue from the production of truck bodies for specialty vehicle and sales of fully-assembled specialty vehicles reached 7.72 billion with 72.9% growth YoY.

In the first half of 2021, light and durable concrete mixer trucks, one of the Group’s major product lines, continued to occupy a leading position in the China market, with total sales of 24,928 concrete mixer trucks, representing an impressive 88.7% increase over the same period last year. According to data released by the Specialty Vehicle Branch of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM), CIMC Vehicles's concrete mixer trucks sales have ranked 1st in the Chinese market for four consecutive years.

It is worth mentioning that that Lingyu Vehicles, a subsidiary of CIMC Vehicles, launched Lingyu Automobile’s “Tianqi Project” Note 1 Phase II to upgrade the automation and intelligent production lines, and actively cooperated with tractor manufacturers to comprehensively promote key “From-Fuel-To-Electricity” projects, and jointly developed battery-driven concrete mixer trucks successfully.

CIMC Vehicles’ urban dump trucks also actively co-developed with tractor manufacturers, promoting the specialty vehicle modification system to move towards sophisticated manufacturing. In the first half of the year, the sales of CIMC Vehicles’ intelligent environmentally friendly urban dump trucks increased by 47.1%.

Seizing the opportunity to transform vans for light transport and launching the "TB" brand

Stimulated by the rapidly developing e-commerce economy, demand for fresh food logistics grew rapidly, and sales of CIMC Vehicles’ refrigerated semi-trailers and refrigerated truck bodies also grew at a satisfactory rate. CIMC Vehicles manufacturing plants produced and delivered 3,294 units of refrigerated truck bodies of various types, representing a YoY increase of 40.5%.

Through the launch of the “TB” brand, modular product design, and intelligent sophisticated manufacturing, CIMC Vehicles made the truck body products under “TB” brand the leader in the development of the cold chain and urban distribution logistics industry. 

Sophisticated Manufacturing System becomes a driving force for development: another peak reached through "Intercontinental Operations" 

Looking ahead, the certainties in the development of China’s semi-trailer business increased under the domestic economic cycle, creating obvious opportunities for upgrading. In the international economic cycle, overseas logistics transportation and automobile manufacturing industry has recovered, stimulated by strong fiscal policies in the United States and Europe. Demand for semi-trailers in overseas markets is expected to rebound.

Driven by factors such as "Oversized and Overloaded” management, “Winning the Blue Sky Defense War”, and the implementation of China’s stage 6 vehicle emission standards, the lightweight and intelligent specialty vehicle products ushered in a window of “upgrade”.

Improvements in China's agricultural product market network, the accelerated enhancement of shortcomings of cold chain facilities, the implementation of China's food cold chain logistics standards, the rapid deployment of urban and rural logistics facilities, and continuous improvements in urban logistics distribution, demand for refrigerated trucks will continue to increase.

CIMC Vehicles has said that it will strive to achieve quality growth in China's semi-trailer business. At the same time, as confidence grows in the overseas semi-trailer business, challenging growth is expected to return. CIMC Vehicles will increase the market share and gross profit margin of its domestic semi-trailers, stabilize sales in North America and Europe, and increase its gross profit margin to help further expand the world-leading position of its semi-trailer business.

In terms of truck bodies for specialty vehicles business in China, CIMC Vehicles will improve product quality and delivery, expand the breadth and depth of joint development with tractor manufacturers, including annual intelligent connected model design, joint R&D and marketing, and product life cycle management.

In terms of its truck bodies for refrigerated trucks business in China, CIMC Vehicles will establish a strategic truck body business division to actively explore leading technologies and breakthrough innovations of this business as an innovative business to drive long-term business development.

Lastly, CIMC Vehicles will implement its "building a Sophisticated Manufacturing System to cope with major changes" development plan to further improve its Sophisticated Manufacturing System and reach the top through "Intercontinental Operations".