BYD shares jump after the Chinese electric car maker predicted rising profits
Warren Buffett-backed BYD said it expects a more than 300% jump in third-quarter profit. Despite headwinds including a resurgence of Covid in China, rising material costs and a slowing economy, BYD has remained fairly resilient.
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Shares in a Chinese electric car manufacturer BID rose on Tuesday after the company forecast a big jump in third-quarter profit.
Late Monday, the Warren Buffett-backed firm said net profit for the three months to Sept. 30 is estimated to be between 5.5 billion yuan to 5.9 billion yuan ($764.5 million to $820 million), a increase of 333.6% to 365.11% compared to the same period last year.
BYD’s Hong Kong-listed shares were 5.6% higher in afternoon trade.
“In the third quarter of 2022, despite the complex and serious economic situation, the spread of the pandemic, extremely high temperature weather, high commodity prices and other unfavorable factors, the new energy vehicle industry continued to accelerate its upward trend,” BYD said in a statement.
The company said the sales volume of the new energy vehicles, which include electric cars, “continued to reach record highs” helping to increase market share and “driving significant improvement in earnings and effectively alleviating the pressure on earnings caused by the rising prices of upstream raw materials.”
A number of electric car manufacturers from Tesla to BYD have struggled with the rising costs of raw materials, such as lithium, which are critical for batteries.
From the beginning of the year to the end of September, BYD has sold 1.18 million new energy vehicles, surpassing Tesla’s figure of just over 900,000 deliveries.
BYD’s various models are among the best-selling new energy cars in China, which is the world’s largest electric car market.
While the Shenzhen-headquartered company has held up fairly robustly in the face of headwinds such as a resurgence of Covid in China and a slowing economy, its smaller rivals have faced difficulties.
In August, Chinese electric car startup Xpeng reported weak third-quarter vehicle delivery guidance.
