Hyundai's April sales fall 5.8 pct on weak overseas demand

SEOUL, May 2 (Yonhap) -- Hyundai Motor Co., South Korea's largest carmaker, said Thursday its sales fell 5.8 percent last month from a year earlier on weak overseas demand.

Hyundai sold 368,925 vehicles in April, down from 391,783 units a year earlier, the company said in a statement.

Domestic sales rose 12 percent to 71,413 units last month from 63,788 a year ago, while overseas sales fell 9.3 percent to 297,512 from 327,995 during the same period, the statement said.

Robust demand for the all-new Santa Fe and Palisade SUVs helped boost domestic sales last month, but weak demand from China and emerging markets, such as Latin America, weighed on its performance last month, it said.

To revive overseas sales, the maker of the Sonata sedan and Elantra compact plans to launch the flagship Palisade SUV in the United States this summer.

In the January-April period, the automaker's sales declined 3.5 percent to 1,390,302 autos from 1,441,172 in the year-ago period, the statement said.

kyongae.choi@yna.co.kr
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