Hyundai Motor, Q2 Operating Profit 1.9 Trillion Won 'Surprise Performance' (Update)

[Asia Economy Reporter Changhwan Lee] Hyundai Motor Company posted a surprise performance in the second quarter, exceeding market expectations. The company showed a strong growth in performance thanks to the base effect from COVID-19 and increased new car sales.

Hyundai Motor announced on the 22nd that its sales in the second quarter reached 30.3261 trillion KRW, and operating profit was 1.886 trillion KRW.

Compared to the previous year, sales increased by 38.7%, and operating profit grew by 219.5%.

This is the first time since the fourth quarter of 2014 that Hyundai Motor's quarterly operating profit exceeded 1.8 trillion KRW.

In the second quarter, Hyundai sold 1,031,349 units globally on a wholesale basis, a 46.5% increase compared to the same period last year.

In the domestic market, sales decreased by 11.0% year-on-year to 200,682 units. This decline was due to the high sales in the same period last year caused by the reduction in individual consumption tax and a decrease in production due to semiconductor supply shortages.

In overseas markets, sales grew significantly by 73.6% year-on-year to 830,667 units, driven by the base effect from COVID-19 last year and the new car effect of major models.

Regarding the outlook for the business environment, Hyundai Motor expects demand recovery to continue due to economic improvements in major countries and the base effect from COVID-19. However, it anticipates ongoing challenges such as delays in the normalization of global semiconductor supply, rising raw material prices, and global inventory shortages caused by a decrease in operating days in the third quarter.

A Hyundai Motor official said, “The increase in vaccination rates in major countries and continued economic stimulus measures by governments are expected to sustain the recovery of automobile demand in key global markets.” However, they added, “Although the impact of the global semiconductor shortage is somewhat easing, supply shortages of semiconductors for certain items are expected to continue into the third quarter, and it will take a long time to return to normal.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.