Earnings

Hankook Tire reports higher operating profit

The Tip Desk · November 13, 2026 · 3 min read

KRX-161390

The tire maker posted a 10.1% consolidated operating margin for the first nine months of 2026.

Hankook Tire & Technology reported consolidated revenue of 16.5 trillion won for the nine months through September 2026, up from 15.7 trillion won in the prior comparison period. Operating profit rose to 1.66 trillion won from 1.29 trillion won, with gains in both its tire and automotive thermal management businesses.

The tire maker recorded nine-month net profit of 848 billion won on pretax profit of 1.18 trillion won. For the third quarter alone, consolidated revenue rose to 5.47 trillion won from 5.41 trillion won in the prior comparison period, and operating profit increased to 599 billion won from 586 billion won.

Tires accounted for most of the nine-month operating profit. The tire and other businesses reported operating profit of 1.43 trillion won on revenue of 8.18 trillion won, with a 17.4% operating margin. In the prior comparison period, those businesses had operating profit of 1.2 trillion won and revenue of 7.56 trillion won. The grouping includes machinery, mold-making and prototype operations.

The third-quarter comparison was less favorable for tire profit. Revenue in the tire reporting segment rose to 2.81 trillion won from 2.71 trillion won in the prior comparison period, but operating profit fell to 506 billion won from 519 billion won. The evidence did not attribute that change to a particular cost or operating factor.

Tire products generated 7.93 trillion won in sales in the first nine months, accounting for 96.88% of revenue in the tire and other business grouping. The company reported a cumulative tire price of 107,032 won for the period, compared with 101,518 won for the full preceding year and 95,224 won for the year before that. Its products included tires for passenger cars, trucks, buses and industrial vehicles.

Hanon Systems, the automotive thermal management business, reported nine-month revenue of 8.28 trillion won, up 1.2% from a year earlier. Operating profit rose 77.9% to 322 billion won, and its operating margin was 3.9%. Its products include automotive air conditioners, powertrain cooling equipment and compressors.

In the third quarter, thermal management operating profit rose to 121 billion won from 95.3 billion won in the prior comparison period. Revenue declined to 2.66 trillion won from 2.71 trillion won. The company estimated that its domestic share of the automotive air-conditioning products market reached 50% in 2025, up from 46% in 2023.

The group had eight production plants across South Korea, China, Hungary, Indonesia and the United States at the end of the reporting period. The company said it plans to pursue growth through technology development, investment, brand building and customer service.

Its research schedule includes work on a tire-condition estimation algorithm using vehicle sensors through November 2026 and a project to develop an AI-based manufacturing simulation model through June 2027. Another project, scheduled through December 2027, targets production technology for environmentally friendly materials.