Hyundai Q2 profit drops 48%

SEOUL, July 26, (AFP): South Korea’s top automaker Hyundai Motor Wednesday posted a 48 percent drop in secondquarter net profit as China retaliated against South Korean exporters over a new US missile defence system.

Hyundai reported net profit of 913.6 billion won ($814 million) in April-June, down from 1.764 trillion won a year earlier.

“Hammered by fallouts from THAAD, net profit has decreased,” the company said in a statement, referring to the US system known as Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD).

Seoul and Washington say the newlyinstalled system is intended to guard against missile threats from the nucleararmed North.

But China strongly objects to the deployment, fearing THAAD’s radar will spy on its own ballistic capabilities and upset the regional security balance.

Sales in China plunged a whopping 64 percent year-on-year to 105,000 vehicles in the second quarter.

Worldwide, Hyundai sold 1.1 million cars including 182,000 in South Korea in the three months to June, down 13.8 percent year-on-year.

The company recorded strong sales in emerging markets like Russia and Brazil but falls in China resulted in a drop in overall overseas sales.

Hyundai said it would add new sports utility vehicles to its lineup and start rolling out the next-generation Genesis sedans later this year in the face of mounting competition and slow global growth.