Hyundai Profit Falls as Weak Auto Demand, Labor Unrest Weigh

By Kwanwoo Jun

Hyundai Motor recorded weaker second-quarter net profit as vehicle sales declined amid cooling global demand, marking the latest setback for South Korea's largest carmaker.

The downbeat earnings come as Hyundai's unionized auto workers in South Korea are staging partial walkouts for a second straight week to demand higher wages, doubling strike hours to four per shift this week.

The union is also seeking job protections amid advances in artificial intelligence and robotics, opposing management's plan to begin deploying humanoid robots on assembly lines within two years.

The automaker on Thursday said net profit declined 11% from a year earlier to 2.888 trillion won, equivalent to $1.96 billion, for the April-June period. That beat a FactSet-compiled consensus estimate of 2.661 trillion won.

Revenue rose 1.9% to 49.215 trillion won, while operating profit dropped 21% to 2.851 trillion won.

Global vehicle sales fell 6.9% year over year during the quarter, bringing the first-half decline to 4.9%, the company said.

Shares in Hyundai, the world's third-largest automaker by sales with sister company Kia, were last 2.5% higher after the earnings results. The company's stock has climbed more than 40% this year, trailing the benchmark Kospi's more than 60% advance.

Write to Kwanwoo Jun at kwanwoo.jun@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 23, 2026 01:32 ET (05:32 GMT)