Kia Oct. sales fall 10.4% on weaker demand

Kia Motors Corp. said Wednesday its vehicle sales fell 10.4 percent in October from a year earlier on fewer working days and weak demand in China.

The country's second-largest carmaker by sales sold 231,275 vehicles in October, down from 258,176 units a year earlier. The decline was driven by the extended Chuseok holiday that fell during the first week of last month and declining sales in China, the company said in a statement.

Domestic sales fell 2.4 percent on-year to 37,521 units in October from 40,034. And overseas sales backtracked 11 percent to 193,754 from 218,142 over the same period, it said.

In the January-October period, Kia's sales were down 6.6 percent to 2.24 million autos from 2.40 million in the same period one year ago, the statement said. 

(Yonhap)

Sharp sales declines in China drove down the carmaker's sales, the company said, citing political tension between Seoul and Beijing over the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system in South Korea.

In March, China banned the sale of group tours to South Korea as part of its retaliation against the THAAD installation. Chinese campaigns against South Korean products also weighed on Kia's sales in the world's largest automobile market.

Seoul and Washington have argued that THAAD is purely aimed at countering missile threats from North Korea. But Beijing has opposed the system, arguing it could be used to spy on its military. (Yonhap)