The car maker, Hyundai Motor has suffered due to weaker demand and unfavourable currency effects, a significant decline in profits.
The Surplus shrank for 2018 in the year compared to 63.8 per cent to 1.6 trillion Won (1.25 billion euros), said South Korea’s industry leaders on Thursday.
In the fourth quarter, Hyundai slipped for the first time since the introduction of new accounting standards eight years ago, in the red. This led to the company “primarily to one-time expenses, including higher tax expenditure and the weakness in subsidiary companies”.
The company, which is together with the sister company Kia Motors is the world’s fifth-largest car manufacturer, to put 2018 in sales within a year, by 1.8 percent, however, sales remained 4.59 million cars under the self-imposed goals. Particularly in China and the USA, it fell short of expectations.
sales was recorded by Hyundai in 2018, a slight increase to 97.3 trillion Won. As a further reason for the profit drop, the company cited the “decline in results of affiliated companies”. In the fourth quarter, Hyundai posted a net loss of 203 billion Won, compared with a Surplus of still of 1.29 trillion Won in the previous year.
Hyundai hopes to achieve with new and upgraded models this year, its higher sales targets. The company is targeting sales of 4.68 million cars, of which 3.97 million are outside of the local market.
dpa
