Shanghai Automotive Company, the listed Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC) subsidiary directly involved in the Shanghai GM joint venture with General Motors, suffered a more than 50% drop in second-quarter earnings.

It has warned investors it may end up posting a loss for the first nine months of 2005. For the six months to end June 2005, sales reached 2.89bn yuan (£193.8m), substantially down on the 4.188bn yuan (£286.8m) achieved in the same period a year ago. Net profit tumbled 67%to 474m yuan (£32.5m).