Shanghai (ZXZC)- Changan Automobile’s sales revenue totaled RMB 49.85 billion in the first nine months, down 3% compared with the same period of last year. During the period, the automaker’s net profit plunged nearly 80% to RMB 1.16 billion.

For the third quarter, the company posted sales revenue of RMB 14.21 billion, falling 20.51% year on year while the net profit nosedived to RMB 450 million by 137.51 percent from a year ago.

Sales decline is the main contributor to the result. In the first nine months, Changan sold 1,647,616 new vehicles, down 20% compared with 2,058,204 of the same period last year. The company’s self-owned brand and joint ventures both saw stagnant sales.

After undergoing continual slowdown from March, Changan Ford September sales were nearly halved to 308,597units. Even though Changan Mazda, another joint venture with foreign automakers, had a stable sales performance, the joint venture’s sales has been at a low level.

The sales decline of Changan brand widened to 17.5% with the lowest sales of the year. But in September, several models, such as CS55, CS75 and CS35, saw sales improvement, which, to certain degree, revived the brand’s overall sales to a month-on-month jump of 32%.

In the automaker’s half-year results report, Changan has pointed out that even though the self-owned brand has improved its ability to make profit, the profit of joint ventures slumped sharply, which resulted in decrease in half-year results.