PSA Peugeot Citroen’s joint venture with Dongfeng Motor Group reduced first-half losses by 49 percent after downsizing and streamlining operations.
The partnership — Dongfeng Peugeot Citroen Automobile – lost 1.3 billion yuan ($187.3 million) in the first six months, according to information Hong Kong-listed Dongfeng disclosed this week.
A prolonged sales slump at the joint venture, which produces and markets Peugeot and Citroen passenger vehicles, has resulted in steady annual losses.
In the first half, sales at Dongfeng Peugeot Citroen plunged 63 percent to 23,237. Revenue fell 57 percent to roughly 30 billion yuan during the period.
With a lack of new or redesigned products, the joint venture’s annual sales have shrunk from around 700,000 in 2015 to some 113,600 in 2019.
The company closed one of three assembly plants in the central China city of Wuhan and trimmed its work force in late 2019.
Dongfeng Peugeot Citroen, established in Wuhan in 1992, is the only production venture PSA operates in China after the French automaker shuttered a partnership with Changan Automobile Co. late last year.
Changan PSA, which launched output in 2013 in the south China city of Shenzhen to build Citroen DS models, failed to achieve meaningful volume until last year.