SEOUL– Hyundai Motor Co., South Korea’s biggest carmaker, said Thursday its sales fell 12 percent last month from a year earlier amid global chip shortages.
Hyundai Motor sold 282,204 vehicles in January, down from 321,068 units a year earlier, the company said.
“We will adjust vehicle production schedules to ride out ongoing semiconductor shortages, while focusing on boosting sales of new models and enhancing profitability,” the company said in a statement.
Domestic sales declined 22 percent to 46,205 units from 59,501 during the period, as the lack of semiconductor parts continued to affect vehicle production and sales, the statement said.
Overseas sales also dropped 9.8 percent to 235,999, from 261,567 amid the extended COVID-19 pandemic, it said.
For the whole of 2021, Hyundai’s overall sales rose 3.9 percent to 3.89 million autos from 3.74 million units a year earlier.
It has set a sales goal of 4.32 million units for this year.
Meanwhile, Hyundai resumed the operation of the Asan plant after suspending it from Jan. 3-28 to prepare for the production of electric vehicles.
Hyundai Motor will halt the Asan plant from Jan. 3-28 to upgrade the facilities before beginning production of EVs next year, the company said in a regulatory filing.
The 300,000-unit-a-year Asan plant produces the Sonata sedan and the Santa Fe SUV.
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.
Source: Yonhap News Agency