Hankook Tire on target for Q3
Hankook Tire has announced its third quarter results, which prove its strong earnings growth stories. Its net profit was improved by 91.6 per cent YTD. A slight slowdown of its 3Q numbers came mainly from fewer working days. Hankook exhibited another good profitability growth again. Despite its YTD sales growth being at only 9.1 per cent, its operating profit was enhanced by 108.2 per cent YTD and its net profit improved by 91.6 per cent. Meanwhile, there was a slight slowdown of numbers on a QoQ basis, down 7.3 per cent in sales growth and down 0.7 per cent in operating profit. Such a decline was partially due to no sales contribution from apartment sales. But the bigger reason comes from fewer working days in 3Q03 (minus 10 days in YoY). As the company has three-shift production and its fixed cost burden amounts to 55 per cent (largely from depreciation, salaries and others), the fewer number of working days enlarged fixed cost burden and its operating profit was slightly decreased by 0.7 per cent QoQ.