Hyundai Motor profit jumps after averting strike

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SEOUL, Oct 25 (AFP): South Korea's top automaker Hyundai Motor today reported its net profit jumped in the third quarter to September after agreeing to a wage deal to avert a strike.
Net profit rose 44.8 per cent year-on-year to 425.4 billion won (463.6 million dollars) in the third quarter and sales increased 19.6 per cent year-on-year to 7.04 trillion won, Hyundai said in a statement.
Operating profit surged 71.4 per cent year-on-year to 314.2 billion won during the three-month period, it added.
The outstanding performance came as the company agreed to a wage deal with the union in early September, the first time for 10 years that agreement has been reached without a strike.
Not a single year has passed without a strike of some sort since Hyundai Motor's union was launched in 1987. Strikes last year alone cost the company 115,683 vehicles worth 1.6 trillion won.
"The absence of production losses from labour actions seemed to be a key earnings driver in the third quarter," said Park Young-Ho, an analyst for the automotive industry at Daewoo Securities.