SEOUL: The world’s biggest shipbuilder Hyundai Heavy Industries made its first annual profit for three years in 2016, it said on Thursday, after cutting thousands of jobs in an industry wide slump.
Net income came to 682 billion won ($595 million) last year, a turnaround from a loss of 1.36 trillion won in 2015, the South Korean company said in a regulatory filing. “Cost reduction and increased productivity contributed to the turnaround, even when the global market remains sluggish”, a company spokesman said.
But sales dropped 15 per cent on-year to 39.32 trillion won.
The company underwent a severe corporate restructuring last year which saw some 2,500 workers laid off, its board members’ salaries cut as much as 50 per cent and assets sold for cash. It also gained from equity ties with Hyundai Oilbank Co, its refining unit, as its efforts to streamline its business portfolio also paid off. — AFP
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