GM reports lower net income in first quarter

CHICAGO, April 26 (Xinhua) -- General Motors (GM) reported on Thursday a nearly 60-percent drop in net income amid planned downtime for pickup production and an aggressive restructuring effort in Republic of Korea.

However, the auto maker beat analysts' expectations by strong crossover sales.

GM said it earned 1.43 U.S. dollars per share on revenue of 36.1 billion dollars, which was better than 1.24 dollars analysts were expecting.

However, GM reported net income of 1.05 billion dollars, down 59.8 percent from last year, and 2.6 billion dollars in operating profits in the first quarter of 2018, down 26.6 percent from the same quarter in 2017.

The automaker took a nearly 1 billion dollars charge related to its ongoing struggles to fix its GM Korea business and also suffered from a major manufacturing shift for its new full-size pickups, bestsellers for the company.

"Results this quarter were in line with our expectations with planned, lower production in North America related to the transition to our all-new Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra," CEO Mary Barra said in a statement.

GM delivered 715,794 vehicles in the United States during the first quarter, up 4 percent and ahead of an estimated industry increase of about 2 percent.

GM's results follow Ford's announcement Wednesday that it made a first-quarter profit of 1.7 billion dollars. The Detroit automaker also announced that it was reducing its North American car lineup to the Mustang and a Focus Active crossover in a bid to boost production of trucks and SUVs. Enditem