Hyundai Motor posts healthy 1H profit


Hyundai is South Korea's biggest automaker

Staff and wires

SEOUL, South Korea -- South Korea's biggest automaker, Hyundai Motor, reported a 46 percent rise in first-half net profit Wednesday to 893.4 billion won ($744 million) on sales of 12.32 trillion won ($10.26 billion).

The figures were in line with expectations and follow record first-quarter earnings.

But the second quarter figures inferred from the results suggest net profit in the three months to June 30 fell about 8 percent to 307 billion won ($255 million).

Hyundai Motor said it sold almost 815,000 vehicles in the first half of this year, a gain of 1.3 percent on the corresponding period last year.

Hit by strike

The value of exports rose to 5.4 trillion won, or about 44 percent of total sales.

Hyundai Motor was hit by a workers' strike in May-June but overall results were helped by a temporary tax cut on vehicle purchases.

Hyundai posted a net profit of 1.17 trillion won (then $900 million) last year, the highest profit in its 35-year history. It looks to be on track to eclipse that figure in 2002.

In April this year the company said it had chosen Montgomery, Alabama as the site for its first U.S. plant. The $1 billion facility will start producing in 2005. (Full Story)

Shares in Hyundai Motor closed 0.46 percent lower in Seoul Wednesday at 32,250 won. The broader market, measured by the Kospi index, rose 0.37 percent.