Sales of Hyundai-Kia in China drop 30 pct on-year in Nov.

SEOUL, Dec. 17 (Yonhap) -- Hyundai Motor Group's sales in China fell nearly 30 percent in November from a year earlier due to the fallout from political tensions over the deployment of a U.S. missile defense system in South Korea, the company said Sunday.

Hyundai Motor Co. and its affiliate Kia Motors Corp., which together form the world's fifth-biggest carmaker by sales, said they sold a combined 145,015 vehicles in China last month, down 29.8 percent from a year earlier.

Their sales in the first 11 months dropped 38.2 percent on-year to 969,553 units, the company said.

While the latest sales figure remained weak, the pace of decline has decelerated given that their overall sales plunged 52 percent to 430,947 units in the first half of this year from 808,359 a year ago.

Company officials attributed the tepid performance to the fallout from the strained ties caused by the deployment of the U.S. anti-missile system, called THAAD, in South Korea earlier this year.

"The prolonged sales slump lowered the operating rate of factories, dealing a heavy blow to contractors and dealerships," a company official said. "It would take some time to fully normalize business in China."

In a summit Thursday, leaders of the two nations agreed to put diplomatic relations back on track and step up economic cooperation.

ejkim@yna.co.kr
(END)