Shanghai (ZXZC)- SAIC Motors posted double-digit decline in both revenue and net profit for the first nine months of 2019, according to a quarterly financial report the company released on October 30.

During the first three quarters, the Chinese largest automaker earned RMB 572.819 billion in revenue, down by 13.62% year on year. Meanwhile, gross operating income fell 13.25% to RMB585.345 billion. Net profit attributable to the listed company's shareholders plunged 24.86% over a year ago to RMN20.793 billion.

In spite of negative growth, all index posted smaller decrease compared to that of the first-half figures. According to earlier financial report, SAIC Motor's Jan.-Jun. revenue and net profit shrank 19.52% and 27.49% year over year respectively.

As for the third-quarter performance, the company's revenue edged down 0.53% to roughly RMB204.903 billion, while net profit still represented a double-digit decrease of 16.59% to RMB9.52 billion.

The auto sales decrease should be blamed for the downward financial performance. The Shanghai-based auto giant sold a total of 4,413,947 vehicles from January to September, suffering a decrease of 14.23% over a year ago. Besides, it has suffered year-on-year sales decline for 13 consecutive months as of this year's September.

（Photo source: SAIC-GM)

Saddled with intensified downward pressure in macro economy, more severe supply-demand imbalance caused by the emission standard transformation and new energy vehicle (NEV) subsidy backslide, the domestic auto market still remained negative from the second half of 2018, said SAIC Motor.

Facing the strong headwinds from the cooling market climate, the company is striving to foster new driving forces in NEV domain and overseas markets. Besides, the 2019 annual sales target has been reduced to around 6.5 million units from the initial 7.1 million units based on the existing selling status.