WESTA 3Q12 revenue falls 44% yoy on weak demand for car batteries

WESTA (WES PW), the leading CIS car battery producer, suffered from a sales plunge of 44% yoy to USD 33.0 mln in 3Q12, the company reported on Nov. 29 in its financials. Battery sales fell 26% yoy to 1.2 mln conventional units in 3Q12 and production fell 19% yoy to 1.3 mln conventional batteries in 3Q12. Total battery sales fell 19% yoy to 2.8 mln conventional units for 9M12. EBITDA declined 5.0x yoy to USD 1.9 mln, net losses were up 4.9.x yoy to USD 10.3 mln in 3Q12. The company reduced its full-year sales guidance 25% to 4.0-4.3 million conventional units (vs 5.1 million units in 2011). WESTA gave no update on its VRLA battery facility commissioning, which had been scheduled for September.

Roman Dmytrenko: The reported results imply the company’s average conventional battery price fell 24% yoy in 3Q12 while the LME price of lead (which represents about 75% of car battery costs) fell only 18%, suggesting WESTA is struggling to pass its costs down to consumers due to weak demand. We are also concerned about the delay in WESTA’s VRLA battery production facility commissioning.