Hyundai Motor's operating profit falls for 4 years to 2016

Hyundai Motor, South Korea's biggest automaker, saw operating profit fall for four years to 2016 on global economic slump and labor strikes, the company said on Wednesday.

Operating profit was 5.19 trillion won (4.45 billion U.S. dollars) last year, down 18.3 percent from a year earlier. It was the lowest since 2010 when the carmaker's profit posted 5.92 trillion won.

The profit continued to slump from 8.44 trillion won in 2012 to 8.32 trillion won in 2013, 7.55 trillion won in 2014 and 6.36 trillion won in 2015 respectively.

The global economic slowdown weakened demand for locally-made cars, while partial strikes of Hyundai workers disrupted production.

Net income declined 12.1 percent over the year to 5.72 trillion won in 2016, but revenue hit the highest of 93.65 trillion won in Hyundai's history, up 1.8 percent from the previous year.

Hyundai sold 4,875,933 cars in 2016, down 2.1 percent from a year earlier. The company said rising revenue in the finance business helped contribute to the record revenue.

The company's auto sales in the domestic market declined 7.8 percent to 656,526 units in 2016, with global sales falling 1.2 percent to 4,201,407 vehicles.

Hyundai set its 2017 sales target at 5.08 million globally, including 683,000 units locally and 4.397 million units in overseas markets. Enditem