General Motors' (GM.US) China operations will incur more than US$5 billion in costs and value write-downs.

General Motors (GM.US) will take more than $5bn in charges and write-downs for its struggling China business, the company said in a securities filing on Wednesday, as it expects to write down the value of its China joint ventures by $2.9bn and take another $2.7bn in costs from closing plants and reorganising its China operations.Most of the non-cash items will be recognised in the fourth quarter, according to the GM filing. The write-down and costs will not affect the company’s adjusted earnings.GM is trying to save its once-profitable business in the world’s biggest car market, where its China operations lost $347m in the first nine months of this year, compared with a $2bn profit in 2017.Another filing showed that GM had valued its stake in its joint venture with SAIC at $6.4bn as of the end of 2023 before the write-down. The write-down of the value of its China joint ventures shows that the company has acknowledged that its China business will not be able to generate the same level of profits as before. The $2.7bn in costs relates to GM’s plan to reorganise its China joint ventures, which includes closing plants and cutting unprofitable models.Jim Cain, a GM spokesman, said that while the company had faced difficulties in China, it and SAIC believed that the joint ventures could return to profitability and that the businesses would also be able to move forward without additional GM capital investment.