CIMC Vehicles (Group) Co., Ltd. (301039.SZ) released its first quarter 2026 report on the evening of April 24, 2026. Marking the inaugural year of its new "Stellar Plan" strategy, the company started the year with strong momentum. Leveraging the solid production foundation for semi-trailers and tanker trucks established under the "Starlink Plan," it actively expanded the boundaries of its "full value chain" curve. The company maintained its leading position in China and Global South markets, while achieving further breakthroughs in both the "vehicles" and "stations" of its EV-RT ecosystem, laying a solid foundation for high-quality development throughout the year.
In the first quarter of 2026, CIMC Vehicles sold a total of 32,512 vehicles/units globally, a year-on-year increase of 9.0%. The company's operating revenue reached 4.64 billion yuan, with a gross profit margin of 15.0%. Net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company was 157 million yuan, while the net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company after deducting non-recurring gains and losses was 159 million yuan.
To further enhance shareholder returns, actively respond to and implement national policies promoting high-quality development of the capital markets, and concretely strengthen investor rewards, the company announced a cash dividend for the first quarter of 2026. Following the 2025 annual dividend distribution (2.1 yuan per 10 shares), the company proposed an additional cash dividend of 1.4 yuan per 10 shares for all shareholders. This dividend arrangement fully demonstrates CIMC Vehicles' firm commitment to actively rewarding shareholders and its dividend distribution capability based on a healthy asset structure and sufficient cash flow.
The Global South market maintained steady and rapid progress, while the "anti-involution" efforts in the Chinese market continued to deepen. In Q1 2026, CIMC Vehicles produced and manufactured 27,000 various semi-trailers globally, generating operating revenue of 3.44 billion yuan and contributing a gross profit of 500 million yuan.
The domestic market, serving as the company's stabilizing cornerstone, continued its growth trend in the first quarter, with the effectiveness of "anti-involution" measures becoming more pronounced. Revenue from the Chinese semi-trailer business increased by 7.5% year-on-year, and the gross profit margin rose by 1.6 percentage points. The company newly established the "CIMC Vehicles Semi-Trailer Business Group" to centrally manage the semi-trailer business within the vast domestic market. This group completed adjustments to its operational base and workforce deployment, established mid-and-back-office support organizations and processes, incubated new business models for productive services, and drove business transformation and upgrading. The CIMC Vehicles Tanker Truck Business Group maintained steady sales growth, adhered to a quality-focused strategy, and retained its leading market share.
Building on the results of the structural reforms in production organization achieved through the Starlink Plan, CIMC Vehicles enhanced incentive optimization for frontline blue-collar workers. Post-Lunar New Year resumption of work proceeded smoothly, with production levels quickly recovering and surpassing the peak levels seen during the year-end push. Specifically, in March 2026, monthly LTP production of semi-trailers approached 10,000 units, and LTP production of tanker trucks exceeded 1,200 units, both setting new historical records. Simultaneously, the company actively expanded towards both ends of the value chain. In Q1 2026, it completed a unified resource allocation for product R&D personnel across the group, making steady progress in independent R&D for intelligent superstructures, European standard products, and running gear. Furthermore, it expanded mutually beneficial cooperation within its ecosystem through equity investments, joint ventures, and strategic partnerships in core components and productive services.
Semi-trailer business in the Global South market showed significant growth, with sales volume increasing by 83.2% year-on-year. The company restructured its workforce deployment and governance framework in the Global South to enhance its "soft power." It unified the pricing system for orange-sheet products and promoted part standardization, effectively reducing delivery cycles and improving product competitiveness. It also enhanced local assembly, localized sales, and integrated delivery capabilities to boost sales competitiveness. The Australian business improved inventory planning and supply assurance capabilities, optimized production resource allocation, continued to focus on product quality enhancement, and further consolidated its market share.
The European semi-trailer business pursued progress while ensuring stability. Routine operations focused on regional core strategies, continuously leveraging the advantages of the global supply chain to ensure stable supply, with gross margins remaining robust. Additionally, preparatory work for the establishment of the "European Semi-Trailer Research Institute" officially commenced in the first half of 2026. Based on the unified organizational planning for technical personnel under the Starlink Plan, precise alignment between the "talent pool" and "demand pool" was achieved, and forward-looking product R&D tailored for the European market has begun in an orderly manner, yielding initial progress.
The North American semi-trailer business seized the window of opportunity presented by market cyclical adjustments and actively addressed challenges arising from geopolitics. The company continued to deepen the advancement of the "Polar Bear Plan," systematically establishing a global supply assurance system and developing local foam board manufacturing capabilities for North American semi-trailers. Thanks to its forward-looking布局, the company gained a first-mover advantage during the reconstruction of local supply capabilities for North American semi-trailers and is expected to further increase its market share in the North American refrigerated truck segment.
The company continued to advance structural reforms in DTB superstructure production organization and actively expanded the R&D and sales of new energy products. In Q1 2026, CIMC Vehicles deepened its "good horse with good saddle" business model, with DTB superstructure business achieving sales of 5,547 units and revenue of 530 million yuan.
Learning from the successful experience and methodology of the Starlink Plan, CIMC Vehicles持续推进 the structural reform of DTB production organization. It has largely completed the structural reform for DTB mixer truck production, and the transformation for DTB dump trucks has also been initiated. Concurrently, the company continued to actively expand the R&D and sales of new energy products, deepening cooperation with OEMs across the entire value chain, including product development, manufacturing, and sales.
The company established the "EV-RT Product Platform Research Institute," achieving breakthroughs in both the "vehicles" and "stations" of the EV-RT ecosystem. In Q1 2026, CIMC Vehicles defined the organizational structure of the "EV-RT Product Platform Research Institute," transitioning from project-based operations to a permanent, systematic R&D organization.
Regarding R&D for the "vehicles" within the EV-RT ecosystem, CIMC Vehicles is steadily progressing with the trial validation of engineering-type pure electric tractor-trailer combinations and has fully initiated the forward development of logistics-type electric trailer platforms and corresponding pure electric tractor-trailer models. For the "stations" aspect, the company is concurrently conducting iterative development of multi-form EV-RT ALFA+ mobile fast-charging vehicles to adapt to diverse scenarios and differentiated customer needs.
Meanwhile, CIMC Vehicles opened the world's first EV-RT User Experience Center in Chongzuo. This center not only comprehensively demonstrates the operational model of the EV-RT ecosystem to the public and end-users but also serves as a co-creation platform for deep collaboration between the company and its users, facilitating efficient linkage between demand and R&D.
Guided by the "Stellar Plan" strategy, the company is targeting comprehensive development in five key directions for the future. Building on the foundation of the "Starlink Plan" and anchored in the start of the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, CIMC Vehicles will unwaveringly deepen reforms and officially launch the "Stellar Plan" (2026-2030), striving to achieve a leap in company value during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period. Guided by this strategy, the company will focus on extending and expanding in five key directions:
First, expand the boundaries of the "full value chain" curve to become a unique full-value-chain operator, significantly increasing the incremental business from productive services. Second, increase investment in the "Starlink Plan" to substantially boost incremental business in the North American semi-trailer market. Third, initiate the "European Semi-Trailer Starlink Plan" when opportune, building new quality productive capacity for semi-trailers spanning Asia, Africa, and Europe, and establishing new quality marketing capabilities across these regions. Fourth, advance towards becoming the global leader in all categories of specialized vehicles. Expand the niches of existing businesses like semi-trailers and tanker trucks, develop incremental businesses such as powder tankers, DTB mixer trucks, and DTB dump trucks, cultivate variable businesses including car carriers, curtain-siders, and wing vans, and build new business models around EVRT/EVBT/EVHT. Fifth, strive vigorously within the EV-RT ecosystem to become a key player in this new landscape, pushing the EV-RT variable business to take substantive steps forward.
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