Hyundai Motor, South Korea's largest carmaker, saw its operating profit in third quarter rise 1.7 percent from a year earlier due to strong demand from overseas markets, the company said Thursday.

Operating profit was 2.01 trillion won (1.9 billion U.S. dollars) in the three months ending Sept. 30, up 1.7 percent from the same period of last year, the company said in a statement.

The rise was attributed to strong global demand for cars produced by the South Korean company, but the figure was down 16.5 percent from three months ago due to weak domestic demand and production disruption in local plants.

"Reduced production in local factories raised fixed costs amid the continued weakness of demand in the domestic market," a Hyundai official said, noting that normalization of production in local plants and recovering domestic demand would boost earnings in the future along with solid overseas sales.

Delayed resumption of weekend shifts at Hyundai's domestic factories impeded production in the quarter, but it was limited due to fewer days of labor strikes than last year. Sales from overseas plants continued to increase in the quarter, brightening outlook for the fourth-quarter earnings.

Sales increased 6 percent from a year earlier to 20.82 trillion won in the third quarter, and net income gained 3.9 percent to 2.25 trillion won over the same period.

"The company will achieve record-high sales in the fourth quarter, backed by high-demand season, normalization of domestic production and new model effect," said Kim Yoon-ki, an analyst at Mirae Asset Securities. Hyundai planned to roll out a new Genesis model within this year.

For the first nine months of this year, Hyundai shipped a total of 3,500,022 vehicles, up 9.9 percent from the same period of last year. Sales in the domestic market reduced 0.6 percent to 478,718 units in the cited period, but those in overseas markets, including exports and vehicles assembled in overseas plants, jumped 11.8 percent to 3,021,304 cars.

The carmaker's revenue gained 5.9 percent from a year earlier to 65.37 trillion won during the January-September period due to brisk overseas car sales, but its operating profit declined 4.9 percent to 6.29 trillion won as weak domestic demand and production disruption in local plants lifted fixed costs.

Skepticism remained over Hyundai's future earnings due to intensifying competition and turnaround of Japanese automakers. Hyundai benefited from an absence of competition during the global financial crisis and a reduced threat from Japanese carmakers amid the weak won trend.

"There was skepticism that Hyundai Motor would be able to maintain its competitive edge when the industry normalized," said Michael Yun, an analyst at KDB Daewoo Securities.