Hyundai Motor reports record profit in 2010 on solid overseas demand

Hyundai Motor, South Korea's biggest automaker, said Thursday it posted record earnings in 2010 on solid overseas demand.

Net income reached a record 5.27 trillion won ($4.7 billion) last year, up 77.8 percent from a year earlier, the South Korean carmaker said in a regulatory filing.

The company's 2010 operating profit, or sales minus selling and administrative costs, jumped 44.4 percent on-year to a record 3.23 trillion won with revenue rising 15.4 percent to 36.77 trillion won.

The automaker's fourth-quarter earnings also reached a record high.

Its fourth-quarter net income marked a record 1.4 trillion won ($1.3 billion), up 47.7 percent from 945.5 billion won the previous year.

Its operating profit rose 8.6 percent in the three months through December from a year earlier to 908.8 billion won.

The record earnings are attributable to strong overseas demand, the data showed.

Hyundai's 2010 overseas shipments climbed 17.8 percent on-year to 1,072,785 units even though the domestic sales fell 6.2 percent to 657,897.

In offshore factories, Hyundai produced and sold 1,881,805 vehicles, totaling 3,612,487 units across the globe last year.

Hyundai's global market share was 5.2 percent in 2010, and it expects to sell 3.9 million units in 2011, the company said.