Operator
Operator
Greetings, and welcome to the China Automotive Systems, Incorporated third quarter 2012 conference call. (Operator Instructions) It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Mr. Kevin Theiss. Thank you Sir, you may begin.
China Automotive Systems, Inc. (CAAS)
Q3 2012 Earnings Call· Thu, Nov 8, 2012
$4.43
-1.99%
Same-Day
-1.94%
1 Week
-10.87%
1 Month
-6.21%
vs S&P
-10.13%
Operator
Operator
Greetings, and welcome to the China Automotive Systems, Incorporated third quarter 2012 conference call. (Operator Instructions) It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Mr. Kevin Theiss. Thank you Sir, you may begin.
Kevin Theiss
Management
Thank you for joining us today and welcome to China Automotive Systems 2012 third quarter conference call. My name is Kevin Theiss and I am with Grayling, China Automotives’ U.S. Investor Relations Advisor. Joining us today are Mr. Hanlin Chen, Chairman; Mr. Qizhou Wu, Chief Executive Officer; Mr. Jie Li, Chief Financial Officer; and Mr. Daming Hu, Chief Accounting Officer of China Automotive Systems. They will be available to answer questions later in the conference call and we will help with translation. Before we begin, I will remind all listeners that throughout this call we may make statements that may contain forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements represent our estimates and assumptions only as of the date of this call. As a result, the company's actual results could differ materially from those contained in these forward-looking statements due to a number of factors including those described under the heading risk factors in the company's 10-K annual report for the year ended December 31, 2011. And under the heading risk factors in the company's form 10-Q for the nine months ended September 30, 2012 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 9th, 2012 and November 8th, 2012 respectively. And in documents subsequently filed by the company from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company expressly disclaims any duty to provide updates to any forward-looking statements made in this call as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. I will provide a brief overview and summary of the 2012 third quarter results. And then I will turn to management to conduct the question and answer session. The 2012 third quarter results are unaudited numbers under U.S. GAAP. For our call today, I will review the financial results in U.S. dollars. Interesting comment, the third quarter unit…
Operator
Operator
(Operator instructions). It appears we have no questions at this time. Our first question comes from (Liang Su) of King Capital. Caller, please proceed with your question. (Liang Su), your line is live. If you’re using a speakerphone… (Liang Su): Hello?
Operator
Operator
Hi. (Liang Su): Hi. Hi, sorry about that. Yeah, just – at the very beginning of the presentation, you mentioned about total vehicle sales and I sort of missed that. So is that China also or is this regarding just [inaudible]? Hello?
Kevin Theiss
Management
That was a – that was an industry number that was provide. (Liang Su): So those are industry numbers. Could you repeat that? Is the total vehicle sales 4% and passenger vehicles 6%, and commercial is down 9%, is that correct?
Kevin Theiss
Management
It was – I think we said 4.4% for total vehicle to 4.5 million units. (Liang Su): Okay.
Kevin Theiss
Management
And then U.S. sales of passenger vehicles increased 6.7% to 3.7 million units, commercial vehicle sales were 0.8 million units, but that was down 4.4% compared to the same quarter in 2011. (Liang Su): I see, I see.
Kevin Theiss
Management
One more, our Chinese commercial truck sales declined by 7.9% in the third quarter. (Liang Su): Okay. In terms of the company specific, you don’t have that kind of breakdown numbers, right?
Kevin Theiss
Management
Jie?
Jie Li
Analyst
Hello? Yeah, these numbers [inaudible] through China or the industry website. There is an official website called the CAAM, China Automobile Manufacturer [Inaudible] and there we are members there. So we have big numbers here. If you want to find some breakdown, I can also email you. (Liang Su): Sure, sure. And you say you have seen the [inaudible] of recovery on the passenger vehicle, you know, in a quarter or…
Jie Li
Analyst
Mm-hmm. (Liang Su): Okay. But I’m just saying, do you have your company specific breakdown, you know, passenger versus commercial vehicles? I mean, the numbers you just provided, that’s the industry, right? But do you have them for your company specific?
Jie Li
Analyst
Hold on. [Foreign conversation].
Kevin Theiss
Management
Okay, so to summarize, as you know, up to know, the Chinese commercial vehicles have experienced a severe decline in 2012. Most of those decreases is in the heavy-duty sector as well as construction-related equipment. Where we see some of the moderator growth is in passenger vehicles and that being said, it’s also in our number, our [inaudible] business are down with the industry. Our passenger vehicle business increased a bit and also because our export business has been growing very strongly. In general, our volume in terms of [inaudible] remained the same year over year because of the economy has changed from the heavy-duty to more – towards more passenger vehicle. And so that affected our revenue. (Liang Su): Okay. Hello?
Kevin Theiss
Management
Yes, any more questions? (Liang Su): Yes, just in terms of geographic extension, I know you’re doing well in the North America and also trying to extending to the Latin America. Has this started yet? [Foreign conversation].
Kevin Theiss
Management
Okay, so as you [inaudible] details of our growth in North America, which has been quite strong, let’s talk about Latin American market. Mainly it’s in Brazil. We have already started our aftermarket business over there. The volume is low at the moment, but we expect some growth there. We also actually spend more effort to develop OEM business. We have been in talk with a number of large OEMs in Brazilian markets and we pay each other visits and they have begun their due diligence and we have not got into a supply contract yet but again, as you know, OEM, it takes time to develop. But once we get into that stage, we should expect [inaudible] from those contracts. To switch gears and talk about other emerging markets, Russia, we have been talking to some OEM there and is in the testing stage. We have some small trial orders, so you know, we look forward to develop that important market. For India, we have some business over there and when we sign a major contract, we’ll make announcements. (Liang Su): Okay, great. Thank you so much for taking my call.
Kevin Theiss
Management
Thank you.
Operator
Operator
(Operator Instructions). It appears we have no questions at this time. I would now like to turn the floor back to management for closing comments.
Kevin Theiss
Management
Our third quarter is seasonally low for the auto industry. First quarter is seasonally high in terms of revenue. So we’ll make our best effort to [inaudible], so we look forward to speaking with you when we report the fourth quarter. Thanks for joining us.
Operator
Operator
Thank you. This concludes today’s conference. Thank you for your participation.