BEIJING -- China's top pickup truck maker Great Wall Motor Co. said Friday it posted a 24.5 percent drop in first-half profit as the COVID-19 pandemic hit the world's biggest auto market.
The Baoding-based company, which has a joint venture with German luxury automaker BMW, said in a stock exchange filing it recorded a 1.15 billion yuan ($168 million) net profit in the first half, down from a 1.52 billion yuan profit a year earlier.
Revenue for the first half fell 13 percent to 35.93 billion yuan ($5.2 billion).
China's overall auto sales are slowly recovering from a virus-blighted start to the year. Sales in July rose for a fourth consecutive month yet are still down 12.7 percent year to date.
Great Wall sold almost 400,000 vehicles in the first six months this year, down 13 percent from a year earlier.
Its sales of pickup trucks surged 38 percent due to new P-series models while utility vehicle sales tumbled 20 percent.
Great Wall agreed to buy two plants in India and Thailand from General Motors and expects those transactions to be completed this year.
