Great Wall Motors defies industry slowdown: report

BEIJING - Great Wall Motors, China's largest sport utility vehicle (SUV) producer, has defied the industry slowdown since early last year, according to a report from Chinese business publication Caixin.

The company sold 620,000 vehicles in 2012, up 28 percent year-on-year, well beyond the industry average increase of 4.3 percent, Caixin said.

Its share price jumped 103 percent on the Shanghai bourse in 2012, marking the largest increase among China's publicly held automakers, according to the magazine.

GWM's recipe for success lies in its unswerving pursuit of profit, according to Caixin. Instead of branching out to create many lines of products with uncertain profitability, GWM made efforts to maximize the productivity of each production segment and concentrate on its best-selling models such as Haval, an SUV brand that held 14 percent of the country's SUV market share in 2012.

The strategy of GWM has influenced its domestic rivals like Chery, another major automaker, which dropped its multi-brand strategy and streamlined operations to reap more profits from its exemplary products, according to Caixin.

Hebei-based GWM is expected to see a profit margin of over 30 percent in its SUV products in the coming three years, Caixin said, quoting a report from investment banking firm BOCOM International Holdings Co Ltd.