Nexen’s Q1 Earnings Jump 43%

Nexen Tire Corp.’s first quarter earnings jumped 43 per cent from a year earlier on the back of increased prices, reports Tire Review. Net profit reached 25 billion won (US$22.4 million) in the January-March period, compared with a profit of 17 billion won a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing. Sales increased 8.6 per cent to 249 billion won over the cited period, while operating income fell 5.1 per cent to 32.4 billion won, it said.

Last month, Nexen Tire raised tyre prices for domestic retail customers by 7 per cent after increasing prices for US and European buyers by as much as 8 per cent since January. The price increase helped it partly offset increased costs of raw materials. Analysts said Nexen, currently South Korea’s third-largest tyre-maker, may expand its local market share as bigger rival Kumho was put under a debt restructuring programme by creditors amid a shortage of cash in January.