Kia's May sales fall 33 pct on weak sales overseas

SEOUL, June 1 (Yonhap) -- Kia Motors Corp., South Korea's second-biggest carmaker by sales, said Monday its sales fell 33 percent last month from a year earlier as the new coronavirus continued to affect the automobile industry.

Kia sold 160,913 vehicles in May, down from 238,943 units a year ago, due to sharply reduced demand amid the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, the company said in a statement.

Domestic sales rose 19 percent to 51,181 units last month from 43,000 a year ago helped by strong sales of the Sorento sport utility vehicle. But overseas sales nose-dived 44 percent to 109,732 from 195,943 during the cited period.

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

Kia has eight domestic factories and seven overseas ones -- three in China and one each in the United States, Slovakia, Mexico and India. Their overall capacity is 3.84 million units.

From January to May, sales declined 15 percent to 949,860 autos from 1,116,782 in the year-ago period.

kyongae.choi@yna.co.kr
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