SEOUL, April 24 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's biggest automaker Hyundai Motor saw a double-digit increase in its first-quarter profit on solid demand for Hyundai-made sports utility vehicle (SUV), the company said Wednesday.
Operating profit reached 824.9 billion won (721.2 million U.S. dollars) in the January-March quarter, up 21.1 percent from the same quarter of last year.
Revenue expanded 6.9 percent over the year to 23.99 trillion won (21 billion U.S. dollars) in the March quarter.
Net income, including minority interest, jumped to 953.8 billion won (833.9 million U.S. dollars) in the first quarter from 731.6 billion won (639.6 million U.S. dollars) a year earlier.
The double-digit profit growth was driven by strong sales of SUVs, including the Palisade and Santa Fe, along with the increased facility utilization rates of production plants in South Korea and the United States.
The revenue expansion was attributed to the enhancement in overall product mix, Hyundai noted.
Hyundai's global car sales totaled 1.02 million units in the first quarter, down from 1.05 million vehicles in the same period of last year. Excluding China, the company's sales volume rose 0.4 percent to 887,489 units.
In the domestic market, Hyundai sold 183,957 vehicles in the quarter, up 8.7 percent from a year earlier on robust demand for the Palisade and the Genesis brand's flagship G90 sedan.
Hyundai said it would tackle business uncertainties, caused by the global economic slump, by strengthening its line-up with new models, including the all-new entry SUV "Venue" and the Genesis brand's first-ever SUV model scheduled to be rolled out in the second half of this year.
The company noted that it would focus on recovering its market share early in China and the United States for the remainder of this year while continuing efforts to enhance sales in India and Southeast Asian countries.
