Hyundai Motor is planning a European sales offensive to take advantage of the sluggish market to gain market share.

The company, which ranks fifth in global sales together with affiliate Kia, expects its volume growth to more than halve this year in the face of rising competition and economic uncertainty. It has posted a smaller than expected gain in net profit.

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Hyundai said it will raise sales in Europe by 15.4% to 465,000 vehicles this year, driven by sales of models such as the i30 and i40.

Lee Won-hee, Hyundai’s chief financial officer said he expects price competition to intensify and that a restructuring of European carmakers could happen.

“We believe the difficult situation will offer us an opportunity to expand our market share in Europe,” he added.

Hyundai continued to outperform the European market last year with sales up 11.3% accounting for almost 10% of its global sales in 2011.

Industry chiefs expect the European market to contract about 5% for a fifth consecutive annual decline. Sales in the region fell 1.7% last year, hit by the worsening European debt crisis.

Lee said there is a lot of uncertainty in the global economy in 2012 because of the European debt crisis and tensions over Iran. He added that Hyundai aimed to raise its US sales by 4.5% to 675,000 vehicles this year by launching four new models including the Santa Fe SUV.

He also expected Japanese rivals to raise incentives to gain back market share, but said Hyundai would maintain or lower its overall incentives in the US.

Hyundai’s overseas sales rose by 23.2% in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, offsetting a 5.8% decrease in domestic sales. The company plans to raise global sales by 5.7% to 4.29m vehicles this year although this ould mark a slowdown for the carmaker, which has achieved double-digit sales growth in recent years.

The South Korean company posted a 38% rise in profit for the fourth quarter, slightly missing forecasts, although it continued to outperform in overseas markets such as the United States and Europe.