Nation’s leading automaker posts 6.3 percent sales drop

Hyundai Motor Co., the country’s top automaker, posted a 6.3 percent year-on-year decline in March sales due to low demand from emerging markets, the company said Monday.

Hyundai Motor sold 405,929 vehicles in March, down from 433,171 automobiles a year earlier, the automaker said in a statement.

“As the company expects slowing sales growth in advanced markets and is not sure about an [immediate] rebound in sales in emerging markets, it will strengthen its fundamentals and actively cope with the ongoing low-growth era,” the statement said without elaborating.

Domestic sales rose 2.6 percent on-year to 63,765 vehicles last month, and exports fell 7.8 percent to 342,164 over the cited period, it said.

In the January-March quarter, overall sales fell 1.6 percent on-year to 1.09 million units, according to sales data released by the company.

Domestic sales for the first three months climbed 0.7 percent on-year to 161,978 from 160,862, while exports declined 2 percent to 927,944, the data said. YONHAP