Shanghai (ZXZC)- On April 8, Chinese power battery maker CATL released a review of its performance in the first quarter of 2019, with an expected net profit ranging from RMB992 million to RMB1.16 billion attributable to shareholders of the public company, surging 140% to 170% year on year.

The non-recurring-excluded net profit attributable to shareholders for the first three months was expected to reach RMB888 million to RMB969 million, skyrocketing 230% to 260% compared to the year-ago period.

CATL said the Q1 profit increase should be ascribed to three major reasons: (1) the domestic market demands for power battery is growing along with the fast development of NEV industry; (2) outputs and sales have been increased thanks to the gradual release of capacity and strengthened market development; (3) the cost-income ratio of the company has been lowered due to the intensified cost management.

In 2018, CATL gained RMB29.611 billion in gross revenues with a year-on-year leap of 48.08%, while its net profits attributable to shareholders of the listed company declined 7.71% from the previous year to RMB3.579 billion. Besides, the full-year non-recurring-excluded profits attributable to the listed company jumped 30.95% to RMB3.111 billion, the power battery maker announced on February 27.

CATL and the state-owned carmaker FAW Group set up a joint venture dubbed CATL-FAW Power Battery Company (CATL-FAW) at the end of January, according to tianyancha.com, a Chinese data search platform. In addition, it also builds joint ventures with Geely, SAIC Motor, GAC Group and Dongfeng Motor.