Hyundai Motor on Thursday was reported to have said it expected combined 2006 sales targets for Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors to fall by up to 6% due to summer strikes.
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The news came a day after GM-Daewoo, which ranks third behind Hyundai and Kia, said sales growth would slow in 2007.
“Late last year, we set our 2006 production target at 4.1m. However, we reduced our production or sales volume down to 3.85m because of labour disputes,” Kim Dong-jin, Hyundai’s vice chairman and CEO, told Reuters as the automaker launched its new Veracruz sport utility vehicle.
But sales volume could total 3.9m units if the labour unions cooperate with the company, he reportedly added, predicting that sales would rebound in 2007.
Reuters noted that union workers at Hyundai stopped working for several hours each business day for a month from late June as they sought higher wages and other incentives while Kia’s union members also staged work stoppages from late July for about a month.
Analysts reportedly expect Hyundai to post lower profits for the third quarter because of the strikes, which the company has said cost 1.3 trillion won ($US1.36bn) in lost output.
Reuters said the automaker sold 1.93m vehicles in the first nine months of this year, up 9.1% from a year ago, and is expected to post a 20% fall in full-year net profit to 1.86 trillion won, according to forecasts by 25 analysts compiled by Reuters Estimates.
Kia, meanwhile, is expected to post a 45% decline in full-year net profit to 680.9 billion won, according to Reuters Estimates.
