Changan Automobile Co. estimates it lost from 160 million yuan ($23 million) to 550 million yuan in the third quarter, as its proprietary car unit and joint ventures with Ford Motor Co. and Mazda Motor Corp. continued to suffer from plunging sales.
The numbers brought its total losses in the first nine months to somewhere between 2.4 billion yuan and 2.8 billion yuan, the state-owned Chinese automaker said in a filing on the Shenzhen stock exchange where it is listed.
For the first three quarters, sales at Changan’s own brands fell 19 percent year on year to around 580,000 vehicles. In the period, deliveries at Changan Ford plunged 58 percent to about 129,000 while sales at Changan Mazda slumped 25 percent to roughly 96,000 units.
Changan Ford builds and markets sedans and crossovers for Ford brand, while Changan Mazda assembles and distributes the Mazda 3 Axela sedan and the Mazda CX-5 and CX-8 crossovers.
The prolonged downturn of the Chinese new light-vehicle market, which started in July last year, has wreaked havoc on Changan’s operations.
In the first three quarters of 2018, the company still reported a net profit of 1.16 billion yuan.
