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S. Korean carmakers’ sales up 3.9 percent in 2014

January 2, 2015

SEOUL (Yonhap) — Sales by South Korean automakers expanded 3.9 percent on-year in 2014, bolstered by their relatively strong sales at home and abroad despite the overall sluggish economic and market conditions, industry data showed Friday.

The combined annual sales of the five local automakers came to 8.95 million units last year, compared with 8.61 million units tallied a year earlier, according to the data provided by the companies. The total excludes complete knockdown kits shipped abroad for assembly.

The five are Hyundai Motor Co., Kia Motors Corp., GM Korea Co., Renault Samsung Motors Co. (RSM) and Ssangyong Motor Co.

The increase was largely driven by strong car sales by Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors, the country’s two largest automakers.

Hyundai Motor, the top in the industry, sold 4.96 million vehicles last year, with its exports and domestic sales totaling 4.28 million and 685,191 units, respectively. The sales grew 4.9 percent from a year earlier.

“Despite the continued global economic slump, sales both at home and abroad increased amid our aggressive promotional and marketing efforts,” the company said in a statement.

Kia Motors, its smaller affiliate and the second-largest automaker here, sold 3.04 million vehicles this year, up 7.6 percent from a year earlier. The combined sales of Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors exceeded 8 million for the first time in 2014.

The two predicted that their combined sales for this year will likely exceed 8.2 million units, a 2.4 percent rise from last year’s target.

RSM, the local unit of French automaker Renault S.A., was another carmaker that fared well both at home and abroad. Its overseas and domestic sales jumped 26.6 percent and 33.3 percent in 2014, respectively.

The strong performance is based on the soaring popularity of the QM3 small crossover sport utility vehicle (SUV) and the introduction of diesel powertrain options for better fuel economy, such as the SM5 diesel midsize sedan.

GM Korea, the South Korean unit of U.S. automaker General Motors Co., however, reported a 19.2 percent on-year drop to 630,532 units amid a sharp decline in exports caused by the carmaker’s pullout of its Chevrolet-badged vehicles from Europe.

Ssangyong Motor, the local unit of Indian sport utility vehicle maker Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd., also reported a 2 percent decline in its annual sales. Its exports shrank 10 percent on-year in 2014, affected by geopolitical risks in Ukraine and market turmoil in Russia, though domestic sales remained quite strong by expanding 7.9 percent over the same period.

Based on the figures, the combined domestic sales of the five automakers grew 5.8 percent on-year to 1.45 million units, while their total exports also advanced 3.5 percent to 7.49 million. The overseas sales growth rate slowed sharply from the previous year’s 6.5 percent.

Market analysts predicted tough market conditions going forward for the auto companies, citing intensifying competition from Japanese rivals empowered by the yen’s depreciation and possible slowdown in economic growth in emerging markets such as Russia.

One Comment

  1. yazan ahmad

    January 5, 2015 at 5:00 AM

    Jordan korea and japan are set to lead the globe by 2030. Japan is mainly led by softbank renault-nissan and sony mobile. Jordan by shale oil, phosphate and telecom ,banks. Meanwhile KOREA is RENAULT korea where the giant korean auto maker took over hyundai-kia interms of quality. Afterall hyundai cars are bad and has week body. GM korea sank. EU is in a struggling economies led by germany as VW sales are flat. USA is no more the world leading as GM ford and apple are almost bankrupt. China is a corrupted nation full with poverty and falling products. It only makes toys. So jordan japan you are leading earth.

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