South Korea’s five domestic car makers posted a 16.7% gain in overseas sales in June. Combined with their domestic sales, the five sold a total of 683,703 cars, up 14.6% from 596,630 cars sold a year before.
Industry leader Hyundai saw sales up 7.2% year-on-year to 344,422 units in the January-June period. Hyundai’s overseas performance was even better, posting a sales increase of 10.6%.
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Kia did even better, up 30.8%, while SsangYong, now 70% owned by India’s Mahindra & Mahindra, was up 65.3%.
Demand for Japanese cars fell by a third in May and June as the country battled to recover from March’s earthquake and tsunami. Sales fell 22% to 351,828 vehicles.
Analysts said that the strong performance of Korea was thanks to the industry’s no-frills, safe manufacturer image which met buyer expectations in the aftermath of the 2008-9 global financial crisis.
“There is pent-up demand for cars in the United States after the market collapsed in the wake of the global financial crisis,” Yoon Phil-joong, an analyst at Samsung Securities was quoted as saying.
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By GlobalData“Consumers also place value on practicality during difficult economic times. Korean car makers are relatively safe,” he said.
