Kia's headquarters in southern Seoul, Friday / Yonhap
Kia Corp., Korea's second-largest automaker, said Friday its first-quarter net profit dropped 23.5 percent from a year earlier due to the impact of U.S. import tariffs and the weakening Korean won.
Net profit for the three months that ended in March declined to 1.83 trillion won ($1.2 billion) from 2.39 trillion won in the same period of 2025, the company said in a regulatory filing.
Operating income plunged 26.7 percent on-year to 2.2 trillion won, while sales increased 5.3 percent to a record 29.5 trillion won.
The earnings fell short of market expectations. The average estimate of net profit by analysts stood at 1.91 trillion won, according to a survey by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data firm of Yonhap News Agency.
Kia said the full impact of U.S. tariffs on imported vehicles was reflected in its first-quarter results. According to Kia's calculations, the cost of the tariffs amounted to 755 billion won.
The weakening Korean won also contributed to the weaker-than-expected first-quarter earnings, the company added.
Over the three-month period, Kia sold 779,000 units of vehicles worldwide, up 0.9 percent from a year earlier.
The company sold 141,000 units in Korea and 638,000 units overseas, while sales of environmentally friendly vehicles rose to 232,000 units, accounting for 29.7 percent of total sales, up from 23.1 percent a year earlier.
"Despite short-term costs, such as U.S. tariffs, we are continuing to expand our global market share and pursue qualitative growth centered on eco-friendly vehicles," a company official said. "We will maintain profitability through efforts to improve our sales mix by focusing on high-value-added vehicles and reducing costs."
Source: Korea Times News
