Hyundai Motor's sales shrink 6.7 pct in Jan.

Hyundai Motor Co., South Korea's top automaker, said Monday that its January sales fell 6.7 percent from a year earlier, affected by weakened demand and stiffer competition at home and abroad.

Hyundai Motor said in a statement that it sold 385,868 vehicles in January, down from 413,390 units tallied a year before.

Its domestic sales came to 50,413 units, down 2.2 percent from a year earlier, while overseas shipments shrank 7.3 percent on-year to 335,455 units, the company said.

"Sales here declined, affected by economic slowdown-caused weak demand and intensifying competition among carmakers," the company said. "We will seek to expand domestic sales this year by increasing promotion efforts and continuously unveiling new models."

The Sonata hybrid still led the domestic sales with a total of 6,907 units sold here in January.

The company attributed the decline in overseas sales to fewer working days at some of its foreign factories.

Hyundai Motor, which makes up the world's fifth-largest automotive group along with its smaller affiliate Kia Motors Corp., cited less demand from emerging markets and deepening uncertainties in the global markets as major factors that could dim its business outlook this year.

"A slowdown in growth mostly in emerging markets and deepening uncertainty caused by currency volatility will keep posing challenging business situations, with competition among carmakers likely to be further intensified," the company said.

"We plan to strengthen the basis for our future growth by beefing up basic capacity in a way that we can more swiftly and flexibly respond to changing the management environment." (Yonhap)