CATL, a Chinese electric vehicle (EV) battery giant, forecast its net profit in the July-September quarter to nearly triple from a year-ago period.
CATL is the world’s biggest battery maker and accounts for more than a third of global EV battery sales.
CATL, a supplier to U.S. carmaker Tesla, expects its third-quarter net profit to increase to between 8.8 billion yuan ($1.23 billion) and 9.9 billion yuan, up from 3.3 billion yuan last year, CATL said in a stock exchange filing.
CATL expects net profit for the first nine months of the year to more than double from a year-ago period.
The company has ramped efforts in market expansion in addition to the capacity planned earlier, CATL said in the filing. CATL said production and sales increased, which helped to secure its leading position in the global market and result in the rapid profit growth.
CATL has accelerated its expansion into overseas markets with contracts to supply batteries to major carmakers including Mercedes Benz Group and BMW in Europe and Ford Motor in the United States, where government incentives are driving demand for EVs.
The Chinese firm announced in August that it would build a $7.6 billion battery plant in Hungary, Europe’s largest so far.