(Yicai Global) April 2 -- China's biggest automaker SAIC Motor managed to increase earnings in 2018 despite the world's largest car market undergoing its first decline in nearly three decades.

SAIC earned a net profit of CNY36 billion (USD5.4 billion), up nearly 4.7 percent on the year, the Shanghai-based firm said in its financial report published yesterday. Operating income rose just under 3.5 percent to CNY887.6 billion (USD134 billion).

Demand for automobiles will wilt as much as 5 percent this year to between 26.8 million and 28.2 million units, SAIC believes. It expects demand for passenger cars to slide 5.9 percent to between 22.2 million and 23.7 million units, while commercial vehicle sales will remain mostly flat at around 4.5 million.

The firm hopes to make up 7.1 million of those vehicle sales. It sold 7.05 million last year, up 1.8 percent from 2017 to mark its slowest growth over the past decade despite new-energy vehicle sales more than doubling to 142,000. The carmaker also expects to generate nearly CNY907 billion in revenue with costs totaling CNY778 billion.

Auto sales in China fell by 2.8 percent to 28.1 million units in 2018, the first decline in the sector since 1990, according to data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. Slowing economy growth, trade tension with the US, general market fluctuations and the future implementation of new vehicle emissions standards all contributed to the decline, the CAAM's Assistant Secretary General Xu Haidong said.

SAIC Volkswagen Automotive was the only one of the company's three joint ventures to increase sales last year -- a 0.1 percent rise to 2.1 million units. SAIC General Motors' sales slumped 1.5 percent to 2 million cars and SAIC-GM-Wuling Automobile saw a 3.65 percent decline to 2.1 million units.

The group fared better overseas, increasing exports and international sales by 62.5 percent to 277,000 vehicles after building foreign factories in Thailand, Indonesia and India. It also set up 11 regional marketing service centers in Europe, North America, South America, Africa, the Middle East, Australia and New Zealand and opened more than 500 service outlets.

Editor: James Boynton