BYD business news

[KiwiGuy]

BYD set to sell 400,000 vehicles this year

From China Car Times:

Whilst car makers the world over languish with poor sales, a new upstart from Shenzhen China is posting record sales.

Shenzhen based BYD is expected to post yearly sales of over 400,000 vehicles this year, with January to September sales sitting at nearly 300,000 vehicles. BYD seem confident that they can push a further 100,000 sales in the last months of 2009. BYD’s January to September sales are 170.2% higher than 2008 sales over the same period, which makes BYD the fastest developing car manufacturer in the Chinese marketplace.

[mememe]

http://autonews.gasgoo.com/auto-news...ng-center.html

BYD to build China's biggest auto-testing center
By George Gao From:Gasgoo.comNovember 17, 2009
Shanghai, November 17 (Gasgoo.com) China's battery and electric car manufacturer BYD Co. announced its plan yesterday to build China's largest vehicle-testing center with investment of 1.5 billion yuan ($219.7 million), China Daily reported. This move is aimed to lift its vehicle quality and R&D capability.

The auto-testing center, located in Shaoguan city, Guangdong province, will also include an auto-parts production base. The project is scheduled to start operation by 2012. With this testing center, the largest in China, BYD expects to become a global leader in auto R&D capability and vehicle quality control.

The automaker currently has a nationwide quality control and R&D system, including vehicle inspection lines, at its manufacturing bases in Xi'an and Shenzhen; a vehicle crash testing lab in Shanghai and an R&D center at its headquarters in Shenzhen, said China Daily.

In late September, BYD launched a high-speed curved cycling track in Shenzhen, the fifth proving ground of its kind in China, making it the first Chinese automaker to have its own circuit.

BYD, backed by investment guru Warren Buffet, dreams of becoming China's No. 1 automaker in about five years and the world's leading carmaker by 2025. It plans to get there by selling as many as 9 million hybrid or plug-in cars a year by 2025.

[Admin]

To start selling e6 electric car in China in Q1
* Plan to sell e6 in the U.S. remains unchanged (Adds details)
By Joanne Chiu
HONG KONG, Dec 30 (Reuters) - Chinese battery and car maker BYD (1211.HK), backed by U.S. billionaire Warren Buffet, said it has raised its 2010 sales target, as it prepares to roll out its first electric cars.
BYD, 10 percent owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRKa.N), aims to sell 800,000 vehicles next year, up from a previous target of 700,000 units, said Paul Lin, manager of the company's marketing department.
He attributed the revision to robust demand from Chinese consumers following Beijing's 4 trillion yuan ($586 billion) economic stimulus plan, which includes several measures specifically aimed at boosting car sales.
"The company already reached its 2009 target of 400,000 vehicles in November, so now we are setting our 2010 target to double that number at 800,000 units," Lin said, adding that this year's final sales should come in at around 440,000 units.
BYD's F3 sedan was the best-selling car in China in the first 11 months of this year, leading other popular domestic and foreign models, such as, Hyundai Motor's (005380.KS) new Elantra and Chery Automobile's QQ, official data showed.
To help meet market demand, BYD's new bus plant in the central Chinese city of Changsha and a car plant in the northwestern city of Xian will start operation next year, adding up to 700,000 units of capacity, Lin said.
Henry Li, general manager of BYD Auto's export arm, told Reuters in July that the firm aims to be a major global player by 2025, with vehicle sales of 8-9 million. [ID:nHKG366761]
BYD, which had sold several hundred of its plug-in hybrid, F3DM, unveiled in December of 2008, plans to start selling its first electric car, the e6, in China in the first quarter of 2010, Lin said.
The e6 had passed government safety inspections in the country and received other necessary permits, he said, adding the firm remained committed to export the model to the United States next year.
BYD's shares, traded in Hong Kong, have surged more than 422 percent since the beginning of this year, leading a roughly 49 percent gain in the broader market .HSI and bolstering its founder, Wang Chuanfu, to the top of Forbes 2009 list of China's wealthiest.
The shares fell 3.78 percent in early afternoon trading on Wednesday, lagging a 0.51 percent fall of the market. (Reporting by Joanne Chiu; writing by Doug Young and Fang Yan; Editing by Chris Lewis and Valerie Lee)



http://www.reuters.com/article/idUST...pe=marketsNews

[martin_krpan]

China’s BYD: Year-over-year net profit triples

For China’s rapidly-growing industry, 2009 will be remembered as the year when domestic sales skyrocketed despite global tumbles from more established players from Europe, Japan and the United States. Warren Buffett-backed BYD – or Build Your Dreams – says its net profit increased to 3.79 billion yuan, or about $555.4 million, up significantly over the 1.02 billion yuan the year before.

Rapidly increasing sales of BYD’s best seller, its F3 sedan (pictured), bolstered the automaker’s net profit. Of BYD’s 450,000 new car deliveries last year, 290,000 were of its F3 sedan, which bears more than a passing resemblance to Toyota’s last-generation Corolla.

BYD is unique in that an American investor controls almost 10 percent of the Chinese automaker. Buffett’s MidAmerican Energy Holdings, the utility-oriented division of Berkshire Hathaway, has a 9.9 percent share in BYD. The company says about 53 percent of its revenue was derived from automobile sales; batteries and mobile handsets made up most of the rest of its sales.

The Chinese automaker says that it still plans to open a North American headquarters in 2010 to handle distribution of its e6 electric crossover vehicle, part of its goal to increase its export sales to about 10 percent of its business.

http://www.leftlanenews.com/chinas-b...t-triples.html

[Johnny Blaze]

Daimler plays down talk it could sell Maybach brand
4:17am EDT

FRANKFURT/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - German carmaker Daimler AG <DAIGn.DE> dismissed market talk on Tuesday it could divest its Maybach super luxury brand, after Chinese media reported that a Chinese firm was considering buying the brand.

The Guangzhou Daily and other local media said on Monday that Chinese car and battery maker BYD <1211.HK> was weighing the possibility of taking over Maybach from Daimler and that it would make a move once the brand was put up for sale.

"Maybach is an important part of Daimler's product portfolio. There is no other decision," a Daimler spokesman said.

Daimler sold just 200 units of the Maybach brand last year, a fraction of the volumes that BMW's <BMWG.DE> Rolls-Royce or Volkswagen's <VOWG_p.DE> Bentley manage.

Paul Lin, a spokesman at BYD in the southern Chinese boomtown of Shenzhen, where the firm is based, also denied the reports.

"It's not true, it's market speculation. We got calls from the media and we have checked with Chairman Wang," Lin said, referring to Wang Chuanfu, chairman of BYD.

Asked whether BYD had had any initial contact with Daimler on buying Maybach, he replied: "No."

Hong-Kong listed BYD is 10 percent owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway <BRKa.N> and has its roots as a battery maker for Nokia <NOK1V.HE> and Motorola <MOT.N>.

BYD would focus for now on its cooperation with Daimler on developing electric cars for the Chinese market, Lin told Reuters.

The two announced the plan at the start of this month, underscoring the German automaker's dependence on outside companies to gain share in the market for zero-emission vehicles.

(Reporting by Hendrik Sackmann and Fang Yan; Writing by Jason Subler; Editing by Jonathan Hopfner)

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE62T0WV20100330

[martin_krpan]

Maybach 'not for sale'

Reports that the Maybach luxury brand could be sold to Chinese car maker BYD are untrue, according to Daimler.

Following widespread reports of a potential sale in China, a Daimler spokesman responded, "Maybach is an important part of Daimler's product portfolio. There is no other decision."

A BYD spokesman told the Reuters news agency the company had not been in contact with Daimler. "It's not true, it's market speculation," he said.

BYD is well known for being 10 per cent owned by American investor Warren Buffett. It is working with Daimler on developing electric cars for the Chinese market.

The future of Maybach has been the subject of speculation for some time, with Merc boss Dieter Zetsche refusing to confirm that a next-generation car was being planned. Last year just 200 Maybach sales were registered.

Zetsche told Autocar late last year, "The contribution of Maybach is not significant or relevant but there are only two players in this market and we are one of them. But there are no plans in the long run."

http://www.autocar.co.uk/News/NewsAr...aspx?AR=248573

[Johnny Blaze]

BYD Fined, Factories Confiscated By China in Land Dispute Case
By Bloomberg News - Oct 13, 2010

BYD Co., the Chinese carmaker part- owned by billionaire Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., was fined and ordered to surrender seven factories in central China after the government said it used land illegally.

BYD will pay 2.95 million yuan ($443,000) and the factories in Xi’an, Shaanxi province, will be confiscated, the Ministry of Land and Resources said on its website today.

“This will affect their capacity expansion in the medium to long term,” said Yu Bing, an auto analyst with Pingan Securities Co. in Shanghai. “If you consider their production requirements in the next two to three years, they will need to bolster their capacity now.”

The decision adds to setbacks for the Shenzhen-based automaker that include declining domestic sales and scaled-back plans to sell electric cars in California. BYD, China’s fastest- growing carmaker by sales last year, reported a 25 percent drop in September auto sales today, even as deliveries rose at rivals SAIC Motor Co. and General Motors Co.

The company’s earnings and operations won’t be affected by the confiscation, John Lee, BYD’s head of investor relations, said by phone from Shenzhen. In a later filing to Hong Kong’s stock exchange, BYD said the land and buildings were part of an expansion project and hadn’t yet contributed any production, sales or profit. Construction was at an initial stage, it said.

Current capacity of 700,000 cars will be enough to meet demand this year, and BYD will boost production at existing plants in China if market demand increases, Lee said. In the statement, BYD said it expected no “material adverse impact.”

Shares Drop

BYD, the maker of China’s best-selling F3 compact car, fell 0.7 percent to HK$56.50 at the 4 p.m. close in Hong Kong trading. The stock has dropped 17 percent this year, while the benchmark Hang Seng Index has gained 7.3 percent.

The company in August slashed its 2010 sales outlook by 25 percent to 600,000 vehicles. Buffett affirmed his support for BYD last month when he visited the automaker in Shenzhen, saying it will be a leader in electric cars.

BYD unlawfully built seven factories on 112 acres of farmland it agreed to buy from an economic development agency in Xi’an, the land ministry said July 15. The company built the plants even though 92 percent of the land was still zoned for agriculture, according to the ministry.

A decision on whether to punish the company was to be made by Sept. 30, the ministry said at the time.

Spending on Plant

BYD spent 149 million yuan on the plant construction as of June 30, according to its interim report issued Sept. 19. The factories would have had a combined capacity of 200,000 cars when completed, it said.

Berkshire Hathaway owns about 10 percent of the automaker through Des Moines, Iowa-based MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co.

BYD, headed by Chairman Wang Chuanfu, started expanding its production as China surpassed the U.S. last year to become the world’s biggest auto market. Its existing Xi’an factory, built in 2005, can assemble 300,000 of its 3-series cars, including the F3 and G3 models, annually.

The carmaker planned to invest 5 billion yuan in a new factory in Xi’an with the same capacity, Wang said in August.

Even as domestic brands such as BYD have expanded capacity more aggressively this year, this may not translate into higher sales, Hungbin Toh, an analyst at Credit Suisse Group AG, wrote in a report this month. The automaker may miss its reduced sales forecast for this year, Toh wrote.

The government decision announced today may help bring BYD relief with regard to its plans for an A-share listing in China, Pingan Securities’ Yu said.

Share Sale Delayed

A day before the ministry announcement in July, BYD said it may delay the share sale to wait for “better timing” after stock markets fell. BYD planned to raise 2.85 billion yuan for projects including the development of lithium- and solar-powered batteries.

Wang said Aug. 23 the company is proceeding with the listing and hopes to sell the shares later this year.

“A resolution to the case will end the uncertainty surrounding the stock for investors,” Yu said. “Investors like BYD for their new energy business, and it is still a very recognized company.”

--Liza Lin and Alfred Cang in Shanghai. Editors: Ian Rowley, Josh Fellman

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/...-update1-.html

[Joest]

It seems that the past 3 months have been really tough for Byd.

This month, they left China's top 10 manufacturer.

I hope that they'll recover.

[Joest]

It seems that the past 3 months have been really tough for Byd.

This month, they left China's top 10 manufacturer.

I hope that they'll recover.

[cuisine]

Chinese automaker BYD profits down by 94 percent.

Build Your Dreams (BYD) Chinese automaker has reported in the first six months of the year a whopping 94 percent profit drop. The fall has to do with decreasing sales in domestic market but also internationally. The company said that they expect an overall loss this year of about 75 – 95 percent.

Between January and June 2011, BYD achieved a net income of 275.4M Yuan, while in the same interval of 2012 the net income plummeted to just 16.3M Yuan. Officials from the company said that this fall has to do with the “changing economic situation at home and abroad”. BYD’s best years were 2009 and 2010 when sales grew significantly but this was put to a stop during the middle of 2010 when the local government ended the car-buying subsidies.

This huge loss is also related to the firm’s solar panel business which has been hemorrhaging money for quite a while.


Source: BYD via bbc.co.uk

http://www.worldcarfans.com/11208304...-by-94-percent