Hyundai Motor sales slip 5.1% in July

Sales of South Korea's leading automaker Hyundai Motor Co. dropped from a year earlier in July due partly to a decline in output caused by a series of labor strikes that led to significant cuts in both domestic and overseas sales, the company said Monday.

The automaker's overall sales came to 339,273 cars last month, down 5.1 percent from July 2015.

Domestic sales plunged 20.1 percent on-year to 47,879 units.

The sharp drop was also attributed to the termination of a temporary cut in excise tax for those who replace their aged cars.

Outbound shipments of cars also dropped sharply from a year earlier due to a 16.6 percent cut in output caused by partial labor walkouts staged last month, the company said in a press release.

Overseas sales, however, only slipped 2 percent on-year to 291,394 cars as increased sales of cars produced overseas nearly helped offset the drop in exports, it added.

In the first seven months of the year, the company's overall sales slipped 1.4 percent on-year to 2,733,632 cars.

Domestic sales gained 0.7 percent to 399,003 cars, but overseas sales dropped 1.8 percent to 2,334,629 units over the cited period. (Yonhap)