A very strong quarter at General Motors is overshadowed by potential headwinds

DETROIT (AP) — U.S. customers who bought a new General Motors vehicle last quarter paid an average of just under $49,900, a price that helped push the company’s net income 15% above a year ago.

And GM Chief Financial Officer Paul Jacobson said he doesn’t see his company cutting prices very much, despite industry analysts’ predictions of growing U.S. new-vehicle inventories and bigger discounts.

The Detroit automaker made $2.92 billion from April through June and posted revenue of $47.97 billion. Excluding one-time items, the company made $3.06 per share, 35 cents above Wall Street estimates, according to data provider FactSet, and revenue was better than expected as well.

While the average sales price was down slightly from a year ago, GM sold 903,000 vehicles to dealers in North America during the quarter, 70,000 more than the same period in 2023. Sales in its international unit, however, fell 7,000 to 140,000, the company said.

Still, shares of GM began to fall shortly after the opening bell, as did shares of most other carmakers, due to a number of perceived, potential pitfalls for the industry, including slowing sales in China.

GM is restructuring operations in China which has dragged on its overall performance. Second quarter revenue at GM’s China joint venture reached $4.7 billion, up from $4.1 billion in the first quarter, yet well below the $9.6 billion in sales the unit booked in the final quarter of 2023 and deliveries this year have been declining.

CEO Mary Barra said during a conference call Tuesday that GM is taking steps to reduce inventory in China, as well as looking at how to better align production with demand. She said that the company expects the rest of the year to be difficult and is working aggressively with its joint venture partner to fix it.

“It’s clear the steps we have taken, while significant, have not been enough. We had expected to return to profitability in China in the second quarter. However, we reported a loss, and we expect the rest of the year will remain challenging because the headwinds are not easy,” Barra said. “We are working closely with our JV partner to restructure the business to make it profitable and sustainable.”

Shares of GM, which had risen sharply before the opening bell, slumped almost 7% by midday.

Jeff Windau, an analyst with Edward Jones, said that elements of the company’s recent quarter may have accentuated concerns that already exist about the automobile industry.

“A slowdown in sales in China and rising competition among local competitors could be a headwind to profits,” Windau said in an email. “Also, the development of electric vehicles are believed to help support future growth. So a slowdown in production could push out sales growth targets.”

Early in the year GM predicted that prices would drop 2% to 2.5% this year, but so far that hasn’t materialized, Jacobson, GM’s CFO, said. Instead, the company now expects a 1% to 1.5% decline in the second half.

GM’s prices fell slightly, Jacobson said, because a greater share of its sales have come from lower-priced vehicles such as the…