From Hong Kong's South China Morning Post, October 20/21:
CATL’s profits slowed sharply in the third quarter, as analysts warn the firm is vulnerable to headwinds in China’s electric car industry
Chinese battery giant Contemporary Amperex Technology Limited (CATL) extended its stock price rout after recording a surprise slowdown in third-quarter net profits, as analysts warned the company could be hit by slowing demand from China’s electric car industry next year.
The world’s largest electric vehicle (EV) battery maker saw its shares continue to tumble by over 10 per cent in Shenzhen and 8.6 per cent in Hong Kong in the morning session on Wednesday.
The Fujian province-based firm posted a net profit of 21.25 billion yuan (US$3.18 billion) for the July-September period, up 14.54 per cent from a year earlier, according to an exchange filing on Tuesday.
The increase marked a sharp slowdown from the 36 per cent jump recorded in the second quarter of the year and a peak of 57 per cent in the final quarter of 2025.
The company’s third-quarter revenue grew 58.58 per cent year on year, reaching 165.22 billion yuan.
Both the earnings and revenue figures missed analysts’ consensus forecasts of 26.03 billion yuan and 175.05 billion yuan, respectively.
CATL’s shares slumped 6.58 per cent to HK$411.80 in Hong Kong and 2.97 per cent to 259.08 yuan in Shenzhen on Tuesday, before the earnings results were announced.
The company’s stock price has plunged since Chinese EV makers Xiaomi and Li Auto announced they were partnering with tier-two battery manufacturers in September, with CATL’s shares down over 20 per cent in Hong Kong and 31 per cent in Shenzhen since the start of the year.
On Tuesday, JPMorgan lowered its rating of CATL’s Hong Kong-traded shares to neutral, as the bank is increasingly worried about a faster-than-expected deterioration of profitability in the Chinese EV industry, which could affect demand for CATL’s batteries....
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