South Korea’s car exports reached a record high in March, fueled by strong overseas demand for small-sized vehicles and sport utility vehicles, a government report showed Monday. Overseas vehicle shipments surged 18.1 percent on-year to 305,257 units last month, with total domestic production moving up 6.3 percent to 420,759 vehicles, according to the report by the Ministry of Knowledge Economy....

Hyundai Motors and its affiliate Kia Motors are stepping up their efforts to support subcontractors’ recruiting. The two companies said Monday that they will hold a series of job fairs to hire jobseekers for subcontractors, including auto parts manufacturers, between April 25 and May 10. The automotive job fairs will start at the COEX in Samseong-dong in southern Seoul on April 25. The event in...

Shanghai being mentioned as new Asian production base for GM Observers in the automobile industry are reviving the rumor that GM Korea will relocate its automobile manufacturing base in Incheon to a foreign country. The rumor has resurfaced as the Korean unit of U.S. General Motors has failed to post noteworthy sales performances despite changing the company name from GM Daewoo to GM Korea and ...

Sporting the same flaming red racing colours, Ducati motorcycles are sometimes referred to as Ferraris on two wheels. The Italian brand has achieved success on the race track despite competition from much larger manufacturers including the likes of Japan’s Honda, Yamaha and Suzuki and Germany’s BMW. For years dominant in the Superbike World Championship, Ducati in 2007 clinched top honours in t...

Toyota Motor Corp. raised its forecast for 2012 industrywide U.S. sales of cars and light trucks to the low- to mid-14 million unit range from 13.6 million, citing rising consumer confidence. “We’re starting to see improvement in consumer confidence and, combined with rising fuel prices and aging vehicles, the market is starting to move,” Bob Carter, Toyota’s group vice president for U.S. sales,...

Monthly sales of import automobiles hit an all-time high of 10,648 units in March, while Korean carmakers such as Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors suffered lackluster sales at home. According to the Korea Automobile Importers & Distributors Association, foreign carmakers saw their combined sales grow by 3.5 percent from a year earlier and 15.8 percent from a month before. The former monthly record ...

Four out of the five major automakers suffered a year-on-year drop in sales in the local market in the first quarter of 2012 amid sluggish private consumption. Hyundai Motor saw its sales at home post 154,855 units in the first quarter, down 7.1 percent from 166,749 units over the same period in 2011. For March sales, the nation’s largest automaker reported a 9.5 percent drop with 56,022 units ...

GM Korea Co., the South Korean unit of U.S. automaker General Motors Co., is voluntarily recalling its Alpheon sedans for headlight problems, the transportation ministry said Thursday. The 12,747 entry-level luxury cars subject to the recall were manufactured between April 30, 2010 and March 5 this year, according to the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs. Vehicles subject to the ...

German luxury carmaker BMW said on Monday it was recalling some 1.3 million cars worldwide due to battery problems that could in extreme cases result in a fire. "In order to carry out a quality measure, BMW is recalling all BMW 5 and 6 Series models of the previous generation, built between 2003 and 2010 and still on the market, for repair at authorised dealers," the firm said in a statement. I...