Hyundai Rotem's operating profit surpassed 1 trillion won for the first time. It was driven by exports of K2 tanks to Poland and the ramp-up of railcar production from orders in Uzbekistan and Australia.
Hyundai Rotem said in a filing on the 30th that operating profit under consolidation last year rose 120.3% from a year earlier to 1.0056 trillion won. Last year's revenue also hit a record high of 5.839 trillion won, up 33.4% from a year earlier.
A Hyundai Rotem official said, "We achieved a high growth rate as production increased for domestic and export orders in the defense and rail institutional sectors," and noted, "In particular, in the rail institutional sector, production for high-speed rail, Uzbekistan high-speed rail, and Australia's EMU project entered full-scale manufacturing." In the defense institutional sector, revenue increased as production ramped up for Poland-bound tank exports and mass production of wheeled command post vehicles.
Hyundai Rotem plans to build a mid- to long-term growth base on the back of solid order intake. As of the end of last year, the order backlog stood at 29.7735 trillion won, up 58.7% from a year earlier. In the rail institutional sector, the company secured work including Morocco double-deck EMUs (2.2 trillion won), the Daejang–Hongdae Line of the metropolitan railroad (1.3 trillion won), and the GTX-B line (592.2 billion won), while in the defense institutional sector it won the second contract for K2 tanks to Poland worth 8.7 trillion won.
Hyundai Rotem lowered its liability ratio, which had surged to 363% in 2019, to 206% by the end of last year. Borrowing fund stood at 109.9 billion won and cash and cash equivalents at 908.4 billion won, effectively maintaining a net-cash management structure, according to Hyundai Rotem. A Hyundai Rotem official said, "We plan to maintain a stable financial structure to enhance management stability amid high external uncertainty."