Kia Motors Q4 profit slumps amid strikes

Seoul : Strikes cut deeply into the fourth quarter profits of South Korea's second largest automaker, Kia Motors, it said Thursday.

Net profit came to 320 billion won (US$276.3 million) in the October-December period, down 25.7 percent from the same period a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing.

Kia earlier said labour strikes had caused the loss of more than 100,000 cars to missed production.

Sales gained one percent on-year to 12.91 trillion won.

For the whole year, the company's net profit came to 2.75 trillion won, up 4.7 percent from 2015.

Full-year sales by value rose 6.4 percent on-year to 52.71 trillion won, although the number of vehicles sold slipped one percent. Operating profits were up 4.6 percent to 2.46 trillion won.