(LEAD) Hyundai Motor Q1 net dips 42 pct on virus impact

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SEOUL, April 23 (Yonhap) -- Hyundai Motor Co., South Korea's biggest carmaker by sales, said Thursday its first-quarter net profit plunged 42 percent as the coronavirus outbreak disrupted production and sales.

Net profit for the January-March period fell to 552.68 billion won (US$449 million) from 953.79 billion won a year earlier, the company said in a statement.

"Supply disruptions caused by the COVID-19 outbreak and lower demand cut into the quarterly bottom line," a company official said in a conference call following the release of the earnings results.

Operating profit rose 4.7 percent on-year to 863.78 billion won from 824.87 billion won. Sales were up 5.6 percent to 25.32 trillion won from 23.99 trillion won during the same period.

In the first three months, Hyundai sold a total of 904,746 vehicles, down 11 percent from 1,021,391 units in the same period of last year.

Currently, Hyundai's plants in the United States, India and Brazil are not in operation in line with local governments' guidance.

Hyundai has seven domestic plants and 10 overseas plants -- four in China and one each in the United States, the Czech Republic, Turkey, Russia, India and Brazil. Their combined capacity reaches 5.5 million vehicles.

kyongae.choi@yna.co.kr
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