Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, May 14 Topic: Consumption Heat Emerges, Enterprises Move towards "New" -- New Highlights of Economic Development from the Annual Report of Listed Companies

Xinhua News Agency reporters Yao Junfang and Liu Yujia

The disclosure of 2023 annual report of listed companies ended recently. While the overall performance remained stable, many growth highlights such as consumption, "new three types" and new quality productivity emerged, adding new impetus and gathering new momentum for the high-quality development of listed companies.

Consumer travel heats up, new business types and new scenarios stimulate new growth

295 million person times, 166.89 billion yuan... The "May Day" holiday just passed, the tourism consumption market continued to heat up, and the number of domestic tourists and the total cost of domestic tourists continued to grow year-on-year.

In 2023, China's consumer market will recover, and the annual reports of listed companies also confirm this trend, and the performance of listed companies in consumer related industries will improve significantly.

According to the statistics of the China Association of Listed Companies, in 2023, listed companies in the transportation, warehousing and postal industries will achieve revenue of 2.07 trillion yuan and net profit of 0.17 trillion yuan, up 4.78% and 57.13% year on year respectively, significantly improving compared with the previous year. The net profits of the aviation, railway and road transport industries increased by 96.37%, 166.25% and 28.29% year on year, and the four major airlines reduced losses by 127.1 billion yuan year on year. Tourism, automobile, hotel catering, film and television theaters and other industries are all experiencing significant growth.

"Previously, the performance growth of industries greatly affected by the epidemic, such as commercial retail, consumer services, transportation and other consumer travel industries ranked top, generally turning losses into profits, and the aviation industry realized a substantial reduction in losses." said Li Qiusuo, chief domestic strategy analyst of CICC Research Department.

Consumer supply continued to improve, and the performance of high-quality consumer goods continued to improve. With the development of the food and beverage industry, the rapid development of smart home appliances, the rise of domestic brands in the beauty industry, and the steady growth of new energy vehicle consumption, in 2023, the performance of listed companies related to the Shanghai Stock Exchange main board will achieve rapid growth.

"The consumer market continues to recover and improve, behind which is the shortage of consumption related infrastructure and service capabilities gradually replenished, and the consumption potential continues to release. At the same time, new consumption models, new business forms and new scenarios continue to emerge, further stimulating new consumption intentions." Sun Jinju, vice president of Kaiyuan Securities and director of the Institute, said.

"Integrate and develop multiple tourism resources such as skiing, rime drifting and snow hiking", "create a 'time-honored brand+new national trend' characteristic business circle", "innovate and launch health food with the same source of medicine and food"... Many listed companies have achieved rapid growth in revenue and net profit by stabilizing new consumption hotspots and trends through innovation.

New quality productivity accelerates the layout of the "new three types" of exports

In 2023, the export share of listed companies in the "new three types" of electric vehicles, lithium batteries and photovoltaic products will increase significantly. Many companies accelerated their overseas layout and business expansion, and their performance improved significantly.

Data shows that in 2023, the revenue of listed companies related to the "new three samples" will grow by more than 10% year on year. Overseas revenue of listed companies related to the "new three types" in Shenzhen Stock Exchange reached 350 billion yuan, up 25.46% year on year.

In the main board of Shanghai Stock Exchange, several automobile brand listed companies disclosed that the global sales of new energy vehicles maintained a rapid growth, and several automobile parts companies disclosed that overseas business income grew rapidly. The "new three kinds" related industrial companies of Beijing Stock Exchange also continued to promote the pace of "going to sea".

Accelerate the convergence of innovative capital, and constantly gather energy for the development of emerging industries. In 2023, more than 60% of the funds raised from IPO and refinancing in Shenzhen Stock Exchange will flow to strategic emerging industries. Compared with the main board of Shanghai and Shenzhen, the A-share innovation sector welcomes more new listed companies - the GEM, the Science and Technology Innovation Board, and the Beijing Stock Exchange in 2023, the total number of new listed companies and the net amount of IPO funds raised accounted for 81% and 79% of the whole market respectively.

Up to now, there have been 489, 495 and 330 listed companies respectively in the three key areas of advanced manufacturing, digital economy and green low-carbon in Shenzhen Stock Exchange. In the Shanghai Science and Technology Innovation Board, companies in the new generation information technology, biomedicine and high-end equipment manufacturing industries accounted for more than 80% in total.

"In 2023, high-tech manufacturing enterprises such as photovoltaic equipment, aviation equipment and special equipment will be more willing to put into production, and industries related to new quality productivity are expected to start a new round of accelerated layout cycle in the future," Li Qiushuo said.

Companies in traditional industries are also actively moving towards "new" development. Taking Sinotrans as an example, the company continued to increase investment in digital construction, applied for 29 patents in 2023, and launched a number of logistics technology achievements such as virtual employees, smart forklifts, and automatic loading.

2115 listed companies released sustainable development reports, and green and low-carbon industries achieved outstanding performance

Under the guidance of policies, the concept of ESG (environment, society and corporate governance) has become the practice of more listed companies. In 2023, a total of 2115 listed companies will independently prepare and release the 2023 sustainable development report, accounting for 39.7%, an increase of nearly 300 over the previous year.

The Bank of China disclosed that the direct greenhouse gas emissions of the whole group in 2023 will be 4.49% lower than that in 2019. A coal company in Shenzhen disclosed that four green mines will be built in 2023, and one of its power plants will achieve a carbon quota surplus of 3 million tons. A logistics company disclosed that the company's service network for agricultural product production and marketing will deliver about 4.58 million tons of characteristic agricultural products in 2023

"Green low-carbon development and high-quality development of listed companies are highly consistent in concept." Sun Jinju said that environmental governance can help reduce the cost of listed companies and help companies improve the efficiency of resource utilization. Social responsibility governance helps to improve the company reputation and public trust.

According to the annual report, the overall performance of green low-carbon industry is good. Taking the GEM as an example, 177 companies in the green and low-carbon field achieved operating revenue of 1.1 trillion yuan and net profit of 76.6 billion yuan, up 13.2% and 15.0% year on year, higher than the market average.

At the same time as the end of the annual report disclosure, the first quarterly report disclosure of listed companies in 2024 has also ended, and many positive factors in the industry have emerged.

According to the statistics of the Exchange, companies in advanced manufacturing, green low-carbon and other fields in Shenzhen Stock Exchange performed well in the first quarter, and new quality productivity continued to be cultivated. A number of consumer related industries on the GEM have made a "good start" and the "new three kinds" export momentum is strong. In the Shanghai Stock Exchange's Science and Technology Innovation Board, more than 70 companies disclosed breakthroughs in product research and development or commercialization, and more than 30 companies disclosed that R&D and production projects were accelerating to land.