Local car sales plunge in September

South Korea’s largest carmaker Hyundai Motor Co. said Tuesday that its sales dipped 2.1 percent in September from a year earlier due to partial strikes and the Chuseok holiday that cut the carmaker’s vehicle output.

Hyundai sold 363,970 vehicles in September, compared with 371,743 units in the same month in 2012, the company said in a statement.

Company officials said the carmaker posted on-year minus growth in September, for the first time in 18 months, adding that its local sales plunged 19.6 percent in September from a year earlier.

The company attributed the drop in monthly sales to partial strikes and a decline in the number of working days in September due to the three-day Chuseok holiday, the Korean equivalent of Thanksgiving.

Kia Motors Corp., South Korea’s second-biggest automaker, said Tuesday that its sales fell 9.7 percent in September from a year earlier in its worst performance in more than a year.

Kia sold 193,671 vehicles last month, compared with 214,379 units in September 2012, the company said in a statement.

The monthly sales figure is the worst since August 2012 when Kia sold 190,870 units. The carmaker blamed the poor sales on partial strikes by its unionized workers that cost the carmaker 413.5 billion won ($384 million) in lost production.

Last month, Kia’s union voted in favor of a tentative wage deal with the management.

For the first nine months of the year, Kia said it sold 2.07 million units, up 3.3 percent from a year ago.

Renault Samsung Motors Co., the local unit of French automaker Renault SA, said that its sales edged down 3.5 percent in September from a year ago.

Renault Samsung sold 11,203 vehicles last month, compared with 11,605 units a year ago, the company said in a statement.

For the first nine months, the carmaker sold 90,804 vehicles, down 22.1 percent from 116,606 units sold in the same period last year.

GM Korea Co., the local unit of U.S. automaker General Motors Co., said that its sales dipped 4.1 percent in September from a year earlier.

GM Korea sold 62,852 vehicles in September, compared with 65,519 units a year earlier, the company said in a statement. For the first nine months of this year, the carmaker sold 572,385 units, down 1.4 percent from the cited period last year.

(From news reports)