Hyundai Motor, South Korea’s biggest automaker, logged a double-digit fall in operating profit last year due to an economic fallout from the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the company said on Tuesday.
Operating profit amounted to 2.78 trillion won (2.5 billion U.S. dollars) in 2020, down 22.9 percent from the previous year.
Revenue fell 1.7 percent to 104 trillion won (93.9 billion U.S. dollars), and net income plunged 33.5 percent to 2.12 trillion won (1.9 billion U.S. dollars).
Hyundai sold a total of 3,744,737 vehicles globally in 2020, down 15.4 percent from the previous year. The company’s local car sales rose in single digits, but its overseas sales posted a double-digit reduction.
The double-digit decline was attributed to the COVID-19 outbreak across the world that roiled the global economy.
However, Hyundai’s earnings rebounded in the fourth quarter owing to solid demand for premium models.
Operating profit jumped 40.9 percent over the year to 1.64 trillion won (1.5 billion U.S. dollars) during the October-December quarter.
Revenue expanded 5.1 percent to 29.24 trillion won (26.4 billion U.S. dollars) in the fourth quarter, and net income soared 78.3 percent to 1.38 trillion won (1.2 billion U.S. dollars).
Hyundai said in a statement that the fourth-quarter revenue was lifted by robust sales of sport utility vehicle (SUV) models and Genesis luxury models to offset an adverse economic environment.
The company’s global car sale was 1,139,583 units in the fourth quarter, down 4.7 percent from a year earlier.
The local vehicle sale expanded 5.0 percent, but the overseas sale declined 6.6 percent in the quarter. (Xinhua/NAN)