South Korea’s two largest carmakers have fallen victim to unfavorable foreign exchange rates that caused an across-the-board drop in earnings in the first half of 2014 despite better sales than last year, industry data showed Sunday.

Combined global sales of cars by Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors, flagships of Hyundai Motor Group, the world fifth-largest automotive conglomerate, reached 4,042,960 vehicles in the January-June period, up a solid 5.4 percent from 3,836,445 units tallied for the year before.

Despite such sturdy gains in sales buoyed by demand for newly released cars such as the Genesis premium sedan, the Sonata midsize family car and to a lesser extent the Carnival minivan, both carmakers reported minus growth in their bottom lines, operating profits and earnings generated by sales.

Hyundai, the country’s No. 1 car company, said its net and operating profits were down 5.1 percent and 5.8 percent, respectively, up until June, while sales were down 0.3 percent to 44.4 trillion won ($43 billion). Its bottom line stood at 4.37 trillion won with operating profit at 4.02 trillion won. (Yonhap)