South Korean’s largest automaker is looking ahead to some big profits. In fact, Hyundai may wind up reporting its biggest quarterly profit margin in two and a half years. This comes after weaker South Korean currency and after record gasoline prices boosted overseas sales of its vehicles. With this perfect storm, Hyundai is looking good in terms of automakers.
Second quarter net income in all probability rose 3.4 percent to 632 billion won, which is $621 million U.S. That’s a significant jump from 611.5 billion won a year prior. Sales likely gained 12 percent to 9 trillion won.
The automaker sold 16% more vehicles as expensive gas prices drove U.S. drivers to opt for compact cars and sedans over trucks and SUVs. The South Korean won’s 8.7% decline against the dollar also helped Hyundai contend with Toyota and Honda, which are hurt by a rise in the Japanese yen.
If things continue along this path, production and sales could be up significantly for Hyundai. The local Hyundai dealer outlets will certainly start moving more cars and the production facilities will find it cheaper to build them. It would be advisable to keep an eye on Hyundai, as many interested consumers often overlook the Korean giant in favour of Toyota or Honda.
July 24th, 2008 at 6:36 pm
[...] The shock of the profit drop was apparent to many, even to analysts that provided a basis for yesterday’s story of expected record profits for the South Korean automaker. It turned out that nobody accounted for [...]