On August 10, 2026, CIDI-NEW (03881.HK) released its first complete half-year financial report since listing. The data shows the company achieved operating revenue of 804 million yuan in the first half of 2026, a 97% year-on-year increase, approaching the full-year revenue level of 2025. The net loss for the period was 113 million yuan, a significant 75% narrowing from the 455 million yuan loss in the same period last year. The adjusted net loss was only 19.68 million yuan, a 82% reduction year-on-year. However, this performance report is not without its flaws.

Autonomous driving revenue nears last year's full-year total, and gross margin improves significantly. From a business structure perspective, autonomous driving solutions remain the company's core revenue pillar. In the first half of the year, autonomous driving business revenue reached 784 million yuan, a 107% year-on-year increase, accounting for 97.6% of total revenue. Shipments of unmanned mining trucks grew 213.6% year-on-year, approaching the 843 million yuan in autonomous driving revenue for the full year of 2025. As of the end of June 2026, CIDI-NEW's cumulative shipments of intelligent products exceeded 23,000 units. The autonomous driving business has delivered or is awaiting delivery of over 3,400 units, with cumulative shipments of unmanned mining trucks exceeding 1,900 units, covering nearly 40 mines globally. The company has achieved regular operation of over 100 unmanned mining trucks at seven mines, with the largest single mine operating scale exceeding 220 units. In terms of profitability, the comprehensive gross margin increased significantly from 17.1% in the same period last year to 26.4%, indicating the initial emergence of economies of scale. The period expense ratio dropped significantly by 80 percentage points year-on-year to 33.95%. The operational robotics business achieved a breakthrough from zero to one, recording revenue of 3.082 million yuan for the reporting period. However, the smart hardware and services segment revenue fell 45.5% year-on-year to 16.172 million yuan.

The "Customer K" issue, a known concern from the prospectus, persists, with impairment provisions continuing. Behind the high-growth financial report lies a risk not unfamiliar to the market: the Customer K default event. The reason it's not unfamiliar is that this issue was fully disclosed in the prospectus. Customer K is an engineering technical services company established in Anhui in 2021. CIDI-NEW had provided multiple forms of financial support to Customer K, including financial guarantees, loans, and deposits, with a maximum guarantee amount of 70 million yuan. Following Customer K's default and significant credit risk deterioration, the company has actually compensated 52.8 million yuan, with a remaining guarantee exposure of 17.24 million yuan. Additionally, a 12.4 million yuan loan provided to Customer K and a 15.2 million yuan deposit paid are both facing loss risks. The prospectus showed that as of June 30, 2025, the company had made impairment provisions of approximately 32.7 million yuan and financial guarantee contract liabilities of 29.6 million yuan related to Customer K's other receivables. The half-year report data shows that as of June 30, 2026, the accumulated impairment provisions for related other receivables had reached 81.6 million yuan, with financial guarantee contract liabilities at 17.24 million yuan. The new impairment losses recognized in the first half of the year amounted to 61.02 million yuan, mostly stemming from the continuous escalation of the Customer K default event. In short, this is not a new risk but the ongoing release of a known risk. The market is more concerned about the rapid expansion of accounts receivable. As of the end of June 2026, the company's total trade receivables and notes receivable reached 1.035 billion yuan, a 46% increase from 708 million yuan at the beginning of the year. The portion with aging over 12 months expanded from 95.76 million yuan to 185 million yuan.

An "IPO wave" for mining autonomous driving is underway. CIDI-NEW is not an isolated case. In 2026, the mining autonomous driving sector is experiencing a collective wave of public listings. On July 8, EZ Drive (07687.HK) was listed on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Founded in 2018, the company had deployed 2,580 active unmanned mining trucks by the end of 2025. By revenue, its market share is approximately 37.6%. The capitalization process in the mining autonomous driving track is accelerating. Besides the already listed CIDI-NEW and EZ Drive, other companies like TAGE IDRIVER, BOLONG, and Trunk Technology have also submitted prospectuses, with the latter filing for a second time. Industry data shows that by the end of 2025, over 4,000 unmanned mining vehicles had been deployed in China, with a market size of 4 billion yuan, accounting for over 46% of the global market. Dongwu Securities predicts that by 2030, the sales penetration rate of unmanned mining trucks in China could rise from 16.1% in 2025 to 50%, corresponding to a market size increase to 30.9 billion yuan. However, the common challenges facing the industry are clear: most leading companies have not yet achieved stable profitability. Although EZ Drive leads in revenue, its gross margin was only 10.1% in 2025, and its current liabilities are still rising. While CIDI-NEW has a higher gross margin, it still needs to bridge the "last mile" from approaching breakeven to full profitability. For CIDI-NEW, holding 1.2 billion yuan in cash reserves, with continuously improving gross margins and significantly narrowed losses, the current strategic focus is clearly on maintaining technological leadership while accelerating its transformation into a replicable profit model. In the mining autonomous driving track, the company that can first achieve stable profitability will truly hold the industry's pricing power.