SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Co raised its annual sales and profit margin guidance on Wednesday, after recording a 15% rise in quarterly net profit helped by a weaker won currency, robust sales of electric vehicles (EVs) and increased production.
The world’s No.3 automaker by sales together with affiliate Kia Corp forecast 2023 revenue would grow 14-15%, up from its January guidance of 10.5-11.5%, while its operating profit margin was upwardly revised to a range of 8-9% from 6.5-7.5%.
“The company expects to strengthen sales momentum through production improvements as chip and component supplies stabilise worldwide … and enhance profitability despite global uncertainties such as interest rate fluctuations,” Hyundai said in a statement.
Its upbeat outlook comes amid growing concerns about cooling vehicle demand due to high interest rates and economic slowdown, with some of its rivals indicating price cuts to drive volume growth.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk signalled last week that it would cut prices again on electric vehicles in “turbulent times” to boost sales.
Hyundai Motor reported a net profit of 3.2 trillion won ($2.50 billion) for the April-June period, versus a 2.8 trillion won profit a year earlier.
That compared with a 3.3 trillion won profit estimate from 19 analysts compiled by Refinitiv SmartEstimate, weighted toward analysts that are more consistently accurate.
Revenue rose 17% on-year to 42 trillion won.
($1 = 1,279.1700 won)
(Reporting by Heekyong Yang and Ju-min Park; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)
