(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-11-08 10:34

When the opening bell on the NASDAQ exchange sounded at Wednesday night Beijing Time, China's leading manufacturer of automobile electrical and suspension parts, Wonder Auto Technology, staged a debut on the global stock market, with its shares opening at $8.78.

Under the ticker code "WATG", the manufacturer based in Jinzhou of northeast China's Liaoning Province, completed a reverse merger last June, with shares trading first on the OTCBB market and for the ultimate overseas listing.

Chairman and chief executive officer Zhao Qingjie identified the listing as "a significant step" to exploring overseas markets.

"Our strategy is to let China's highly value-added auto parts industry to branch into the world market dominated by Europe and the United States," he said.

Industry experts foresee tremendous growth potential for China's auto parts manufacturers as the country overtook Germany in the first quarter to become the second largest auto parts supplier to the United States and is embracing an unprecedented boom in car making.

On Wonder's client lists are scores of automobile and engine manufacturers including Beijing Hyundai, Shenyang Mitsubishi, Beijing Benz-Daimlerchrysler, SAIC-GM-Wuling and Chery.

The company's production capacity has more than quadrupled from 930,000 units to four million units over the past decade while its product mix expanded from 15 to 220 items. Last year, its generators alone accounted for 16 percent of China's new car market while starters controlled another 13 percent, making its total market share the second largest in China.

Zhao said the company planned to use bank loans to install two new production lines to expand its annual production capacity to 4.5 million units so as to meet the market demand of this year and 2008.

According to its third quarter financial report, Wonder Auto Technology saw $27.3 million in sales, a rise of 40 percent from $19.5 million from the third quarter of last year. Gross profits rocketed by 78 percent from $4 million to $7.1 million  while net income grew by 55 percent from $2.4 million to $3.7 million.

The fully diluted earnings per share edged up 50 percent from ten US cents in the third quarter of last year to 15 US cents.

The sales revenue for 2007 was expected to surge more than 40 percent to 700 million yuan or $93.8 million with the product output rising to 840 million yuan or $112 million.