Hyundai Motor Q4 net plunges 30.1%

South Korea's top automaker Hyundai Motor Co. suffered a huge setback in its profit in the fourth quarter of last year, the company said Wednesday.

Net profit came to 1.07 trillion won ($918.5 million) in the three months ended Dec. 31, down 30.1 percent from the same period in 2015, the company said in a regulatory filing.

Sales slipped 0.9 percent on-year to 24.54 trillion won, despite a 3.2 percent drop in the number of cars sold over the cited period.

Operating profit tumbled 32.6 percent on-year to 1.02 trillion won, apparently reflecting a sharp increase in costs.

"The company's profitability slowed from a year earlier in the fourth quarter, and this was largely due to a rise in the cost caused by massive missed production in the third quarter," a company official said, while speaking on the condition of anonymity.

For the entire year of 2016, the automaker posted a net profit of 5.72 trillion won, down 12.1 percent from 6.51 trillion won in the previous year.

Full-year sales gained 1.8 percent on-year to 93.65 trillion won, but operating profit tumbled 18.3 percent to 5.19 trillion won. (Yonhap)