Hyundai Motor, Kia Forecast Slowest Sales Growth in 10 Years
- South Korea’s largest automakers missed 2015 sales target
- Competition to intensify in markets including U.S., China
Completed Kia Rio vehicles sit with body panels covered in protective wrapping ahead of distribution in a parking lot outside the Hyundai Motors Corp. automobile plant in St Petersburg, Russia, on Friday, Aug. 14, 2015. By volume, Hyundai Kia is the largest automaker in Russia, holding that position as its 15% decline in unit year-to-date sales is the third best performance of all automakers selling in Russia.
Photographer: Andrey Rudakov/BloombergHyundai Motor Co. and Kia Motors Corp., South Korea’s largest automakers, forecast their weakest sales increase in a decade as a slump in demand in China and a stronger won cut their profit.
The companies’ combined deliveries will rise 1.4 percent to 8.13 million vehicles in 2016 from a year earlier, Chung Mong Koo, chairman of both automakers, said during a New Year address to employees in Seoul on Monday. That would be the slowest growth since 2006 and compares with the average estimate of 8.12 million units in a Bloomberg News survey of five analysts.