Hyundai Motor Net Profit Falls on Weaker Sales, Cuts Outlook

By Kwanwoo Jun

Hyundai Motor's net profit slumped in the third quarter, as sluggish vehicle sales and production losses from labor unrest weighed on South Korea's largest carmaker.

The disappointing results come as the company is struggling with slowing auto demand and intensifying competition from Chinese rivals at home and abroad.

A series of union strikes also intermittently disrupted production and shipments at Korean plants earlier this year before the company reached a settlement in late August.

The automaker said Thursday that net profit fell 24% from a year earlier to 1.932 trillion won, equivalent to $1.44 billion, for the July-September period. That missed a FactSet-compiled consensus estimate of 2.406 trillion won.

Revenue fell 3.4% to 45.110 trillion won, while operating profit increased 5.5% to 2.677 trillion won.

Global wholesale vehicle sales fell 11% year over year during the third quarter. Wholesale vehicle sales in South Korea dropped 27%.

The company attributed the sales decline to fewer working days because of holidays in South Korea, strike-related production constraints and weaker global industry demand.

Reflecting a challenging business environment, Hyundai lowered its 2026 vehicle sales target to 4.0 million units from 4.16 million.

The company also cut its 2026 operating profit margin target to 5.5%-6.5% from 6.3%-7.3% and reduced its investment plan to 16 trillion won from 17.8 trillion won.

Shares of the company pared early gains to trade about 1% higher after the results. The stock is roughly flat this year, after months of steep declines wiped out early 2026 gains.

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

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 29, 2026 01:57 ET (05:57 GMT)