China’s Geely Automobile Holdings said on Monday first-half net profit fell 43%, as the coronavirus outbreak slammed the brakes on auto sales in the world’s biggest market.
Geely, China’s highest-profile automaker globally due to the group’s investments in Volvo Cars and Daimler AG, posted January-June profit of 2.3 billion yuan ($331.37 million), versus 4.01 billion yuan in the same period a year prior.
Revenue fell 23% to 36.82 billion yuan, Geely said. The result compared with the 36.89 billion yuan average of three analyst estimates compiled by Refinitiv.
Geely earlier this month maintained its annual sales target of 1.4 million vehicles set in January, shortly after the coronavirus outbreak was first reported in China at the end of 2019. On Monday, it trimmed the target by 6% to 1.32 million vehicles. Sales last year reached 1.36 million vehicles.
It sold 530,446 vehicles in January-June, around 19% lower than its total over the same period last year.
Among rivals, first-half China sales fell 17% at Volkswagen AG, 25% at General Motors and 20% at local peer Great Wall Motor Sales fell just 2.2% at Toyota Motors Corp.
