China woes take toll on sales of Hyundai Motor, Kia

Hyundai Motor and its sister company Kia Motors are set to miss this year’s sales targets as diplomatic rows with China deepen, company officials said Sunday.

In the January-July period, the two automakers posted a 46 percent on-year slump in sales with the number bought by customers in China standing at 500,964 vehicles from 919,380 units a year earlier.

The slump came as Chinese customers opted to buy fewer South Korean vehicles in protest against the deployment of an advanced U.S. missile defense system in Korea, which Beijing sees as a method of spying on it.

Hyundai and Kia are expected to sell fewer than 7 million cars globally this year, far lower than their original sales target of 8.25 million, according to Hyundai officials.

Last year, they sold 7.88 million units, down from 8.01 million a year earlier.

They aimed to sell 1.95 million cars in China this year, but they are widely expected to sell fewer than 1.3 million units.

YONHAP