Hyundai's May sales fall 39 pct on virus impact

SEOUL, June 1 (Yonhap) -- Hyundai Motor Co., South Korea's largest carmaker, said Monday its sales plunged 39 percent last month from a year earlier as the new coronavirus outbreak continued to affect vehicle sales.

Hyundai sold 217,510 vehicles in May, down from 358,567 units a year earlier, due to sharply reduced demand amid the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, the company said in a statement.

Domestic sales rose 4.5 percent to 70,810 units last month from 67,756 a year ago. But overseas sales nose-dived 50 percent to 146,700 from 290,811 during the cited period.

In late May, all of Hyundai's overseas plants resumed operations, but they are not in full operation due to sharply decreased demand amid virus fears.

Hyundai has seven domestic plants -- five in Ulsan, one in Asan and one in Jeonju -- and 10 overseas plants -- four in China and one each in the United States, the Czech Republic, Turkey, Russia, India and Brazil. Their combined capacity reaches 5.5 million vehicles.

From January to May, sales fell 26 percent to 1,288,629 units from 1,748,911 in the same period a year ago.

kyongae.choi@yna.co.kr
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