Hyundai Motor's Dec sales fall 16.6 pct on weak overseas sales

SEOUL, Jan. 2 (Yonhap) -- Hyundai Motor Co. said Tuesday its December sales fell 16.6 percent from a year earlier due to weaker overseas demand.

The country's biggest carmaker sold 406,671 vehicles in December, down from 487,850 units a year earlier, the company said in a statement.

"Strikes at the carmaker's main domestic plants and sharp sales declines in China amid bilateral political tensions (over the deployment of a U.S. missile defense system in South Korea) resulted in the poor monthly results," the company said in a statement.

Domestic sales fell 26.1 percent to 53,361 cars last month from 72,161 a year ago. Overseas sales also dropped 15.0 percent to 353,310 from 415,689 during the same period, it said.

For the whole of 2017, Hyundai Motor saw its sales decline 6.5 percent to 4.5 million units from 4.8 million a year earlier.

The company and its union have yet to seal the wage deal for 2017 and it needs to launch new and customized models, including sport-utility vehicles, to revive sales in major markets this year.

kyongae.choi@yna.co.kr
(END)