Hyundai Motor's profit falls on weak auto demand, labor unrest
The move comes amid a drop in auto sales amid cooling global demand. It reported weaker second-quarter net profit, the latest setback for South Korea's largest automaker. Hyundai Motor Co.'s weak results came as the company's unionized workers in South Korea went on partial strike for a second straight week to demand higher wages, doubling strike length to four hours per shift this week. The union is also seeking job protections amid advances in artificial intelligence and robotics, opposing management's plan to deploy humanoid robots to assembly lines within two years. The automaker said on Thursday that its net profit fell 11% year-on-year to 2.888 trillion won ($1.96 billion) in the April-June period. The performance was better than the average estimate of 2.661 trillion won compiled by FactSet. Revenue rose 1.9% to 49.215 trillion won, while operating profit fell 21% to 2.851 trillion won. The company said global vehicle sales fell 6.9% year-on-year in the quarter, leading to a 4.9% sales decline in the first half. After the results were announced, Hyundai Motor's stock price rose 2.5%. Hyundai and sister company Kia are the world's third-largest automaker by sales. The company's shares have risen more than 40% so far this year, lagging the benchmark Korea Composite Index (Kospi), which has risen more than 60%.