GM Korea Co., which requested support from the government to maintain a production line in the country, may have suffered losses of 900 billion won ($831.4 million) in 2017, latest data showed Thursday.

The provisional numbers offered by the carmaker to the government and the Korea Development Bank, showed the South Korean unit of US automaker General Motors Co., posted annual losses for four straight years.

The carmaker has called for assistance after announcing last month that it will shut down one of its four plants in the country. The company said it will decide on its future course of action based on the level of assistance it can receive and cooperation from its labor force that will have to take hits on wages and benefits.

After reporting a net loss of 353.4 billion won in 2014, the company has not been able to turn a profit, with GM Korea reporting a deficit of 631.5 billion won in 2016. The total loss for the four year period was close to 3 trillion won.

With last year's loss, the company has been in a state of impaired capital from the third quarter onwards. Its debt ratio has surged from 435 percent in 2014 to 84,980 percent in late 2016.

In addition to the net deficit, the company's operating loss is estimated to have reached an unprecedented 800 billion won last year, while its sales may have reached around 10.7 trillion won.

The sales figure is the lowest tallied since 9.5 trillion won right after the global financial crisis seriously affected demand for cars worldwide.

Market watchers said the rise in losses may be linked to the decision by GM to halt exports of Chevrolet branded cars to Europe in 2013, which directly impacted South Korean operations. The choice of what kinds of cars have been built in the country further hurt sales, they said.

Related to the current situation, the Seoul government and KDB argued that lack of transparency in the running of the company and managerial problems have contributed to the current situation

Government officials have said the GM Korea's high ratio of sales prices to raw material costs is affecting its earnings.

GM Korea's ratio of cost of sales stood at 93.1 percent in 2016, significantly higher than other local carmakers, like Hyundai Motor Co., Kia Motors Corp and SsangYong Motor Co. The figure for the three other carmakers was around 80 percent.

KDB said that the higher numbers may reflect "unnaturally high" interest rates the local unit paid to its headquarters for money borrowed, and lack of transparency on research and development cost-sharing.(Yonhap)