Winners & Losers
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Hyundai Motor
announced Thursday that it posted record yearly earnings in 2012 thanks to brisk performances overseas. Its turnover reached 84.4 trillion won, up 8.6 percent from 2011, with an operating profit of 8.4 trillion won, up 5.1 percent up from the previous year.
Net profit increased to 9.06 trillion won, up 11.7 percent from 8.1 trillion won a year earlier. The country’s largest automaker sold 4.41 million vehicles, up 8.6 percent from the previous year, with 3.74 million sold abroad.
But there were downsides. In the domestic market, it saw a 2.2-percent decline in sales in the face of the strong performance of imported brands such as BMW and Mercedes-Benz.
Worse, its operating profit decreased during the fourth quarter from a year before due to the appreciation of the Korean won, which prompts some experts to predict that the high-flying carmaker might be grounded this year.
Sales of cigarettes
in South Korea last year fell from a year earlier largely as a result of the economic slowdown and widespread anti-smoking movements, industry data showed Monday.
According to the data of Ministop Korea, the local operator of the Japan-based convenience chain store, cigarette sales fell 7.6 percent in 2012 year-on-year. Korea Seven said cigarette sales at its 7-Eleven convenience stores dropped 4.3 percent, and GS25 chains, run by local retail conglomerate GS Corp., saw tobacco sales dip 2.2 percent.
Nearly half of cigarettes are sold through convenience stores in South Korea.
The sales decline was led by sluggish sales of foreign cigarettes amid a slump in the local economy, according to the data.