SEOUL (Reuters) -Hyundai Motor posted a 29% decline in third-quarter operating profit on Thursday, as U.S. tariffs hurt the South Korean automaker.
Hyundai, which together with its affiliate Kia is the world’s third-biggest automaking group by sales, booked an operating profit of 2.5 trillion won ($1.76 billion) for the July-September period, down from 3.6 trillion won a year earlier.
It, however, met an LSEG SmartEstimate of 2.5 trillion won, which is weighted towards analysts who are more consistently accurate.
The automaker said U.S. tariffs cost the company 1.8 trillion won in the third quarter, up from 828 billion won in the previous quarter.
The automaker had been disadvantaged as its vehicles were subject to a 25% tariff for exports to the U.S., its biggest market generating about 40% of revenue.
But that rate would be lowered in the coming months to 15% after Washington and Seoul reached a trade agreement on Wednesday.
Hyundai Motor shares, which rallied earlier in the day after to the trade deal, pared gains, up 2.9%.
(Reporting by Heekyong Yang and Hyunjoo Jin; Editing by Rashmi Aich and Christopher Cushing)
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