SEOUL, South Korea—Hankook Tire Co. Ltd. posted 54.3 percent higher operating income for the quarter ended June 30 on 6.7 percent higher sales.
Hankook did not elaborate on the reasons for the improved earnings, other than to point out above average growth in higher-value-added performance tires in Europe and North America, and an expansion of OE tire sales outside of South Korea.
Operating income rose to $271.2 million on sales of $1.15 billion, raising the operating ratio five and half points to 18 percent.
According to Hankook, the UHP segment sales increased 2.6 percent and now account for 37.7 percent of overall sales. Hankook pointed out that it has gained OE fitments with German car makers BMW A.G. and Porsched A.G. on the firms' 7-series and Macan models, respectively.
For the first half of fiscal 2016, Hankook reported operating income of $490.4 million on sales of $2.93 billion, increases of 38.9 and 8 percent, respectively. Consequently, the operating ratio is up more than three points to 16.7 percent.