Hyundai's July sales fall 1.8% amid China woes

Hyundai Motor Co. said Tuesday its sales fell 1.8 percent last month from a year earlier, hit by weakening overseas demand, particularly in the Chinese market.

The country's biggest carmaker by sales sold a total of 333,180 vehicles in July, down from 339,417 units a year earlier, the company said in a statement.

Declining demand from China continued to affect the company's monthly sales results amid a diplomatic row between Seoul and Beijing over the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system in South Korea, the carmaker said. 

Domestic sales rose 25 percent year-on-year to 59,614 cars last month from 47,879 a year earlier. But overseas sales fell 6.2 percent to 273,566 from 291,538 during the same period, it said.

In the January-June period, Hyundai saw its sales plunge 42 percent to 301,277 vehicles in the world's biggest auto market from 522,769 units a year earlier.

China has taken measures against tour packages to South Korea and other manufactured goods as part of its retaliation against the stationing of the THAAD system. Seoul and Washington maintain THAAD is purely aimed at countering missile threats from North Korea. But Beijing has opposed the system, arguing it could be used against it.

As the low-growth trend is expected to continue both in advanced and emerging markets in the second half, Hyundai said it will launch new models and supply more SUV models in major markets.

In the January-July period, Hyundai sold a combined 2.53 million autos, down 7.4 percent from 2.73 million during the same period a year before, it said. (Yonhap)