Earnings Labs

China Automotive Systems, Inc. (CAAS)

Q4 2013 Earnings Call· Mon, Mar 31, 2014

$4.43

-1.99%

Key Takeaways · AI generated
AI summary not yet generated for this transcript. Generation in progress for older transcripts; check back soon, or browse the full transcript below.

Same-Day

+5.32%

1 Week

+3.42%

1 Month

-3.04%

vs S&P

-3.74%

Transcript

Operator

Operator

Greetings and welcome to the China Automotive Fourth Quarter and Full-Year 2013 Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A brief question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Kevin Theiss of Grayling. Thank you, sir. You may begin.

Kevin Theiss

Management

Thank you for joining us today and welcome to China Automotive Systems 2013 fourth quarter and fiscal year conference call. My name is Kevin Theiss, and I am with Grayling, China Automotive's 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. We will help them with translation. Before we begin, I’d remind all listeners that throughout this call, we may make statements that may contain forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements represent our estimate 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 those forward-looking statements due to a number of factors including those described under the heading Risk Factors in the Company's Form 10-K Annual Report for the year-ended December 31, 2013 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 31, 2014, respectively; and the documents 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 whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. I’ll provide a brief overview and summary of the 2013 fourth quarter and fiscal year results. And then I will turn to management to conduct the question-and-answer session. The 2013 fourth quarter are unaudited numbers, while the fiscal year numbers are audited, both periods results are reported under U.S. GAAP. For our call today, I will review the financial results in U.S. dollars. Industry overview. We achieved record sales in 2013 as our market leading position increased further in a rising…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. (Operator Instructions) Thank you. Our first question comes from the line of William Gregozeski with Greenridge Global. Please proceed with your question.

William Gregozeski - Greenridge Global

Analyst

Hi, congratulations on the good quarter. Could you -- if you can, can you breakout the unit sales of the EPS product in fourth quarter and for the full-year 2013?

Unidentified Company Representative

Analyst

So we sold 44K units of EPS in 2012 and about 20K units in 2013. We don’t have the number for the fourth quarter of 2013 at hand.

Unidentified Company Representative

Analyst

Actually just a [mix of] [ph] mission here, it was around 80,000 units something like that for the fourth quarter of last year.

William Gregozeski - Greenridge Global

Analyst

Sorry, can you repeat those numbers again.

Unidentified Company Representative

Analyst

So 2013 we have over 200,000 units, at 2014 we’re expecting double.

William Gregozeski - Greenridge Global

Analyst

Okay, great. And then is there anything with the year or -- or else a while ago you had announced the Beijing Henglong, is there anything that’s going to happen with that in the near future?

Unidentified Company Representative

Analyst

So, the factory is being built and we are currently in talks with Beijing, and also that the Beijing Hyundai has come and had talks with us, numerous occasions already.

William Gregozeski - Greenridge Global

Analyst

Okay. Do you think you’ll be selling under that JV this year?

Unidentified Company Representative

Analyst

Okay, so the sales are indeed going to take place through the JV at once on the specific car motors. At the moment we’re in talks with them on the, (indiscernible) providing the [SAIC] [ph] 93 and 96 models, so that the after-sales is going to add in on the progress on the side of Beijing as well. Meanwhile we’re also talking to them on the Hyundai and the Jeep models also, and the factories are being built. So that’s the current status of this JV project.

William Gregozeski - Greenridge Global

Analyst

Okay. And is there any gross margin expectation that you can provide for 2014?

Unidentified Company Representative

Analyst

So, our gross margin for 2013 was 18.5% and we currently expect a slight increase for 2014 mainly due to three reasons. Number one, being that the price is remaining stable and the second one is because our raw material cost continues to be low and the third reason is because our expected doubling in the EPS sales units, which as you know are higher margined.

William Gregozeski - Greenridge Global

Analyst

Okay, great. Thank you, guys.

Unidentified Company Representative

Analyst

Thank you.

Unidentified Company Representative

Analyst

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

(Operator Instructions) Thank you. We have reached the end of the question-and-answer session. I would now like to turn the floor back over to management for closing comments.

Kevin Theiss

Management

Thank you to all for participating in our fourth quarter 2013 earnings conference call. We look forward to speaking with you again and wish you all a good day.

Unidentified Company Representative

Analyst

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation and have a wonderful day.