Hyundai Motor Co., South Korea's leading automaker, said Thursday its first-quarter net profit slipped 1.3 percent on-year amid a slowdown in sales due to a temporary shutdown of one of its Korean manufacturing plants. Net profit for the January-March period came to 3.37 trillion won (US$2.5 billion) on a consolidated basis, compared with a profit of 3.41 trillion won a year ago, the company said in a regulatory filing. Operating profit reached 3.55 trillion won, down 2.3 percent from a year ago. Sales rose 7.6 percent to 40.65 trillion won. The company's quarterly performance beat market expectations. The average estimate of net profit by analysts stood at 3.03 trillion won, according to a survey by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data firm of Yonhap News Agency. Hyundai Motor said it sold 1,006,767 vehicles globally in the first quarter of 2024, down 1.5 percent from the same period last year. The company attributed the slowdown in sales to the temporary shutdown of production lines at its Asan plant in South Korea, carried out as part of Hyundai's upcoming new car launch preparations. At home, the company's sales fell 16.3 percent on-year to 159,967 units, but its overseas sales rose 1.9 percent to 846,800 units thanks to the introduction of new models and strengthened demand in North America, Europe and India. Source: Yonhap News Agency