BYD reported Friday that second-quarter net profit reached 8.2 billion yuan ($1.22 billion), up 30% year-on-year, snapping a losing streak that had stretched across four consecutive quarters. The result marked the first time in over a year that the Chinese automaker has grown quarterly profit, with international EV demand providing the lift that its sluggish home market could not.
The profit rebound fell short of analyst expectations, however. Analysts at Morgan Stanley $MS, UBS, Citi, Deutsche Bank, and CMBI had collectively penciled in a roughly 48% second-quarter profit gain, making the actual outcome a meaningful shortfall. On the top line, revenue came in at 194.6 billion yuan, a 3.2% year-on-year decrease that marked the fourth straight quarter of contracting sales.
Overseas shipments were the primary driver of the earnings recovery. First-half exports climbed 71% to more than 790,000 vehicles, accounting for 44% of total sales. BYD’s overseas business, which accounted for 53% of total revenue, saw its gross profit margin climb to 22% in the first half—up 1.9 percentage points—as a 34% year-on-year gain in operating revenue outpaced a 31% rise in operating costs. The company’s overall gross profit margin expanded to 18.85% in the first half, up from 18.01% in the year-ago period, a gain BYD credited to its growing overseas vehicle business.
