Earnings Labs

China Automotive Systems, Inc. (CAAS)

Q1 2013 Earnings Call· Tue, May 14, 2013

$4.43

-1.99%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Greetings, and welcome to the China Automotive Systems’ First Quarter 2013 Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A 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, Mr. Kevin Theiss with Grayling. Thank you Mr. Thesis, you may begin.

Kevin Theiss

Management

Thank you for joining us today and welcome to China Automotive Systems 2013 first quarter conference call. My name is Kevin Theiss and I am with Grayling, China Automotives’ 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 and we will help with translation. Before we begin, I will remind all listeners throughout this call we may make statements that may contain forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements represent our estimates 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 the 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, 2012 and under the heading Risk Factors in the Company's Form 10-Q for the three months ended March 31, 2013 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on May 14, 2013, respectively, and in documents subsequently 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 will provide a brief overview and summary of the 2013 first quarter results and then I will turn to management to conduct the question-and-answer session. The 2013 first quarter results are unaudited under U.S. GAAP. For our call today, I will review the financial results in U.S. dollars. Industry overview, our sales increased by 20.1% year-over-year and we outperformed the…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. (Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from the line of Bill Gregozeski with Mont Blanc Capital. Please state your question. William Gregozeski – Mont Blanc Capital Management: Hi, I have a few questions for you, can you tell us what the EPS sales and the international sales were in the first quarter? [Foreign Language]

Unidentified Company Representative

Analyst

Okay. The EPS sales in the first quarter is about 30,000 units that’s total amounted to US$3 million and international sales which is our export business to North America that total around US$10 million. William Gregozeski – Mont Blanc Capital Management: Okay. And then on the SGMW order, when did you actually start supplying to them, because I was under the impression from the press release a couple of weeks ago that you’ve just won that order? [Foreign Language]

Unidentified Company Representative

Analyst

Our shipment to SGMW actually started in January 2013. The volume has dramatically increased in the recent months and also it took us some time to finalize the contract. So we made an announcement after the contract has been finalized, which is a detail of total amount at the volume, they will be purchasing from us on an annual basis. William Gregozeski – Mont Blanc Capital Management: Okay. Is that 350,000 of fixed numbers then or could that fluctuate going forward?

Unidentified Company Representative

Analyst

[Foreign Language]

Unidentified Company Representative

Analyst

[Foreign Language]

Unidentified Company Representative

Analyst

Okay. 350,000 units is based upon their projected sales for 2013. And the share we are getting in terms of the volume for as a supplier and so that’s how we get calculated, however in the future, if they can continue to increase the volume, we will, our total supply contract will also increase proportionally. William Gregozeski – Mont Blanc Capital Management: Okay, so you’re probably at 40%, 50% of what they are going to do as a total amount of sales going forward or at least that where it is right now?

Unidentified Company Representative

Analyst

[Foreign Language]

Unidentified Company Representative

Analyst

Okay, it depends on the vehicle models, some models we have penetrations up to 80%, 70% to 80%, some models we only have 20%, so it’s a vehicle model based calculation on to come up this total volume in number. William Gregozeski – Mont Blanc Capital Management: Okay, how many units did you ship to them in the first quarter?

Unidentified Company Representative

Analyst

[Foreign Language]

Unidentified Company Representative

Analyst

80,000 units in the first quarter to SGMW. William Gregozeski – Mont Blanc Capital Management: Wow, okay, so it is probably not going ramp too much up going forward from that quarterly figure then right?

Unidentified Company Representative

Analyst

[Foreign Language]

Unidentified Company Representative

Analyst

Second quarter well you see it’s exceeding 80,000 units. William Gregozeski – Mont Blanc Capital Management: Okay. And my last question is with all the cash you have, are there any plans for what to do with that?

Unidentified Company Representative

Analyst

[Foreign Language]

Unidentified Company Representative

Analyst

We are…

Unidentified Company Representative

Analyst

[Foreign Language]

Unidentified Company Representative

Analyst

Okay.

Unidentified Company Representative

Analyst

[Foreign Language]

Unidentified Company Representative

Analyst

Okay. So, basically the cash flow we use in the following areas, first, it will go into similar portion of that cash flow will be used in the CapEx and mainly to expand our capacity for the export related business and also prepare us to expand our footprint globally, we’re not looking only in the U.S. market, we’re looking other areas as well. And secondly, we are going to inject some of the money into our Beijing, as I mentioned it was Beijing Auto, so we’re going to continue to build out that facility and to prepare the rollout of the number of products with Beijing Auto. And lastly, we put some of the money into the low risk financial instruments in China to create some of the returns. So, that’s how it has been used and on top of that we’ll get some of the buyback, so, that’s the general answer for the cash. William Gregozeski – Mont Blanc Capital Management: Okay, all right. Thank you, very much.

Unidentified Company Representative

Analyst

You are welcome, thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. (Operator Instructions). Our next question comes from the line of [Robert Pavlovich] a Private Investor. Please state your question.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Hi, how is everybody today, this is a great day right?

Unidentified Company Representative

Analyst

Thank you.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

I have a couple of easy questions, actually, I am a shareholder of fair significance I guess I’ve had the stock for a couple of years, but I was just wondering, I know China Automotive has been making inroads of new contract agreements and so forth. How do we look as far as inroads with German or Japanese auto manufacturers, I know that these companies typically like if they start to manufacture in China, they tend to partner up with their suppliers that were based out of their primary countries, what do you see in that areas, as far as our potential to make them progress in those areas, maybe get some awards?

Unidentified Company Representative

Analyst

[Foreign Language]

Unidentified Company Representative

Analyst

Okay.

Unidentified Company Representative

Analyst

[Foreign Language]

Unidentified Company Representative

Analyst

Okay so regarding your question, we actually have been supplied to FAW, Volkswagen as John mentioned in China for a number of years, since 2007 and the model we supply is Volkswagen, Jetta. And we also recently started a conversion with Volkswagen, China, and looking to a number of other vehicle models, the initial evaluation, we’re already passed initial evaluation, so we are still in discussion with them and to develop that part of business, possible business. In terms of Japanese OEMs, Japanese system is very protected, it’s hard to penetrate, and however we are making some inroads was one of that John mentioned in China, is Nissan, Dongfeng Motor. Nissan Dongfeng are looking on our EPS product, where are in the [design] evaluation phase, one of the particular model, right now. So, we’re making some progress on that as well, although in general, it’s hard to get into the Japanese market.

Unidentified Company Representative

Analyst

I would assume that as these companies want to setup manufacturing in China, there is a better [shop] for China Automotive to get some of that activity you know.

Unidentified Company Representative

Analyst

[:

Unidentified Company Representative

Analyst

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Unidentified Company Representative

Analyst

Okay. And those joint venture with a foreign OEM when they come to China, they start off former joint venture with the Chinese player, but also they bring in some of the relationship they already established with their home market, so the suppliers are using the home market and to follow [search] and open the factory in China. So that’s how the procurement start with OEM and however, over time we see opportunities that they will start to looking at the local supplier, where the technology and the qualities standard meet their requirement. And so, at that point we definitely will see some of the portion of the business will come out to us, it’s a good possibility there, but again if we want to take over completely as a main key supplier it’s going to be a long way to go.

Unidentified Company Representative

Analyst

[Foreign Language]

Unidentified Company Representative

Analyst

Okay. So, it’s not in the near-term action to become a key supplier to those players, with some relationship they have established has been longstanding.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. As this brings us to the end of our Q&A session, I would like to turn the floor back over to Kevin Theiss for closing remarks.

Kevin Theiss

Management

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

Operator

Operator

This does conclude today’s teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time and we thank you for your participation.