Zoomlion says earnings may drop 90%

    ZOOMLION Heavy Industry Science and Technology Co., a big Chinese maker of construction machinery, yesterday warned that third-quarter earnings could be as much as 90 percent lower than a year before.

    The profit warning suggests China’s construction market has yet to bottom out, but some of Zoomlion’s rivals are faring better because they adopted more cautious sales practices at the height of the market downturn in 2012-2013, industry analysts say. Net profit at Sany Heavy Industry Co. fell 48 percent in the first half, whereas Zoomlion’s slumped 69 percent from a year earlier. Profit at Guangxi Liugong Machinery Co. fell 39 percent. For the first nine months of the year, Zoomlion expects net profit to fall between 65 percent and 75 percent.

    Weichai Power profit to increase 60%-70%

    WEICHAI Power Co., a Hong Kong and Shenzhen-listed truck engine maker, said yesterday that it expects net profit in the first nine months of this year to rise between 60 percent and 70 percent when compared with the same period last year.

    The company said in a statement that it expects net profit to rise to between 4.32 billion yuan (US$705.2 million) and 4.63 billion yuan, up from 2.7 billion yuan in the same period last year. The increase is mainly due to its minority stake in KION Group AG, a German-listed forklift manufacturer. Weichai owns a 25 percent stake in the company.

    CIMC profit to rise 50%-100%

    CHINA International Marine Containers (Group) Co. (CIMC), which provides shipping containers and other logistics services, said yesterday that it expects profit for the nine months ending in September to increase between 50 percent and 100 percent when compared with the same period last year.

    The increase is due to realized profit from the completion of its offshore engineering projects and improvement in its energy, chemical equipment and food equipment businesses, it said.

    Lenovo confident of closing Motorola buy

    LENOVO Group Ltd., the world’s largest maker of personal computers, can close its US$2.91 billion purchase of Google Inc.’s Motorola Mobility unit this year, chief strategy officer Zhou Qingtong said.

    “For this type of the transaction, six months to a year is very typical,” Zhou said yesterday. “We are confident that we can close the deal by the end of the year.”