Monday, September 01, 2008
Korean firm’s global sales up despite difficult environment
KIA Motors Corp. has announced in Seoul, South Korea that its global sales (export sales, domestic sales and sales from overseas plants) of passenger cars, recreation vehicles (RVs) and commercial vehicles in July 2008 recorded 122,230—representing a 24.1-percent year-on-year increase.
By region, Kia posted large, year-on-year sales increases in China (11,110 units, a 114.1-percent year-on-year increase), Korea (27,514 units, a 37.5-percent year-on-year increase) and general markets (22,973 units, a 37.3-percent year-on-year increase).
Sales increases were also significant in Europe and North America where 28,670 (a 8.4-percent year-on-year increase) and 31,963 (an increase of 6.2 percent) Kia vehicles were sold in July, respectively.
Cumulatively, through the first seven months of 2008, Kia’s global sales increased by 16.9 percent year-on-year and reached 839,384 units.
China (90,863 units sold) and general markets (142,402 units sold) have experienced the largest gains of 42.7 percent and 33.3 percent, respectively.
Cumulative year-on-year sales increases have also been experienced in all other sales regions: Korea (18.2-percent gain with 181,544 units sold); Europe (12.4 percent with 216,332 units sold); and North America (3.5 percent with 208,243 units sold).
So far in 2008, Kia’s best selling model in overseas markets has been the C-segment Cerato (known as “Spectra” in some markets) with 124,058 units sold. It is followed by a close group of three vehicles: the B-segment Rio at 94,340, the C-segment cee’d at 91,857 and Kia’s Sportage compact SUV at 87,547. Meanwhile the A-segment Picanto continues to perform well with 61,498 units sold.
Hyoung-Keun Lee, senior executive vice president for the international business division, said that as Kia enters the second half of 2008, “we continue to experience strong sales growth across all markets, and we have achieved consistently high and significant year-on-year gains in China and general markets in particular.” “These results represent great performance by our sales team, especially given the difficult industry environment,” he added. (PR)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (September 1, 2008 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
|
