Korean Car Exports Plummet to Lowest in 40 Months

By Kim Sung-jin Staff Reporter

The local (Korean)auto industry's June export figures were the lowest since February 1999, shipping a mere 80,000 cars overseas.

According to the Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association (KAMA) the nation's finished car exports last month amounted to 80,668 units, including 75,422 passenger cars, 44.3 percent less than the corresponding period last year, and down 39.2 percent from last May.

This is the least number of monthly car exports since the 74,448 cars shipped out in February 1999. The drop in the number of car exports is also the largest since the currency crisis of late 1997.

Daewoo Motor, which saw its sales network to Eastern Europe and the U.S. excluded from the takeover take-over deal by General Motors (GM) nearly collapse, only shipped out 8,785 units last month, down 54.7 percent from a year earlier.

Hyundai Motor also saw its exports decline by 46.2 percent to 44,231 units in June this year, from a year ago, attributed to partial strikes at its factories.

Kia Motors and Ssangyong Motor also saw their exports shrink by 33.9 percent and 25.2 percent, respectively last month, but Renault-Samsung Motors maintained the same number of car exports last month as it exported in June last year, being two units.

Korea's cumulative car exports in the first six months this year totaled 680,512 units, down 7.9 percent from the same period last year.

``Due to a combination of unfavorable market conditions such as the slowdown in car demand in major export markets, the trend of the weaker dollar, export-domestic sales volume adjustments because of soaring domestic demand, partial strikes at Hyundai Motor's factories and the collapse of Daewoo Motor's overseas sales network, the nation posted its worst export performance in 40 months, said a KAMA official.

sjkim@koreatimes.co.kr