(Yicai) Jan. 29 -- Chinese automation solutions provider Pia Automation Holding has received an order for electric drive system assembly equipment worth between CNY400 million and CNY500 million (USD56 million and CNY70 million) from a leading German automaker.

Pia’s overseas unit Pia Automation Austria recently inked a production line supply deal with a German car manufacturer to make electric drive system products for the latter’s plant in Steyr, Austria, the Ningbo-based parent company announced yesterday.

The order will consolidate Pia’s leading position in the market of production equipment electric drive products for new energy and smart vehicles, positively impact the company’s main business and operating performance in the next three years, and help the firm receive more similar orders from well-known clients, Pia noted, without revealing any further details.

Pia develops, produces, sells, and provides services for smart manufacturing devices, industrial robots, and industrial digital smart software. Its products have been used to make electric drive systems for high-end vehicles of well-known carmakers, such as BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, and Fisker, according to the company’s 2022 annual earnings report.

Pia also released an earnings warning in a separate statement yesterday, as the company is expected to have turned a net profit of CNY42.3 million (USD6 million) in 2022 into a net loss of between CNY180 million and CNY220 million last year. Operating revenue likely rose 3.6 percent to 14.5 percent to between CNY2.1 billion and CNY2.3 billion (USD296 million to USD324 million) in the period.

The net loss was mainly due to the bad management of its US unit and higher operating costs of the company’s overseas subsidiaries caused by rising interest rates, Pia noted, adding that it has already changed the general manager and other managers of its US unit and set aside CNY108 million as provision for credit asset and impairment losses.

Pia’s shares [SHA: 688306] closed 3.9 percent down at CNY4.41 (62 US cents) in Shanghai today, after gaining 1.3 percent in morning trading.

Editor: Futura Costaglione