The second largest South Korean auto manufacturer has denied local reports it is reducing its unit sale targets in 2009.
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The Maeil Business Newspaper quoted company executives as saying that Kia was setting volume targets of 1.47m vehicles for 2009. The target for this year was 1.61m units.
However, aReuters quoted Kia officials saying the company had not finalised a sales target for next year yet.
“We have not decided an official target yet. We are still analysing market conditions,” the spokesman said.
The newspaper said Kia was expected to sell 1.4m vehicles in 2008.
Earlier this month, Kia Motors’ labour union agreed to production cuts to match falling demand world-wide.
Hyundai, affiliate Kia and other Korean automakers have already cut production by reducing daily work hours and shuttering production lines.
Kia said the 28,000-worker union had agreed on a “flexible production system” to overcome the “auto industry crisis” but no other details were given.
Its worldwide vehicle sales fell 3% to 133,507 units last month, the company added.
