[AutoDaily] In September, the five main auto-makers in Korea sold 642,132 vehicles in the international market. This is a 4.6% decrease compared to September 2012's sales. Overall, 101,021 vehicles were sold in the domestic market from last September. That is a 12.8% decrease in sales. Vehicles manufactured in Korea for export for overseas sales were at 541,111, which is a 2.9% decrease from the same time last year.
 
In the domestic market, Hyundai and Kia motors sales have decreased considerably while GM Korea, Reanult Samsung and Ssangyong have increased in their sales. Especially Renault Samsung which sold 5,000 vehicles to the market and took the fourth position in sales in the Korean market. Now Ssangyong has moved a step back into fifth.
 
Hyundai and Kia struggled with the union strike that took place until the middle of September. With employees refusing to work overtime on weekends and weekdays and a partial strike which affected their production. Even after the union reached a tentative deal on wages, Chu-seok, the big Korean holiday followed and kept production at low capacity.
 
Hyundai sold under 50,000 vehicles in the domestic market last August and September. September especially saw their sales slide as well as in August of last year. Kia motors has also been going through sales difficulties in the last two months as well as August of last year with 19,870 vehicles sold in 2012.
 
Sales have decreased compared to last year at the same time in models including:
● Carnival(-62.7%)
● Max Cruise(-59.1%)
● Sportage R(-43.5%)
● Tucson ix(-17%)
 
Popular cars during the summertime like SUV's or RV's have decreased. These models are also in a shortage supply because of the strike, so they are delayed by two months to the market.
 
Except for Hyundai and Kia in September, GM Korea has increased by 18.5% (13,252 vehicles sold) compared to the same time last year. The Chevrolet Spark had 5,514 sales, Cruze 1,977 sales and Orlando 1,644 sales. September has seen the highest monthly sales so far for the company in 2013.
 
Renault Samsung had a 23.8% increase(4,957 vehicles sold) from the same time last year. The 2014 SM5 and SM7 Art collection launched and sold well. The QM5 with a 2.0L gasoline engine sold 500 vehicles as well.
 
Park Dong-hun a vice president of Renault Samsung, who recently moved from Volkswagen Korea said that Renault Samsung will be trying to expand its market through a variety of marketing promotions in October.
 
Ssangyong motors has increased sales with their new Korando C, but they are suffering some problems from a shortage of able hands that occurred during Chu-seok and some internal issues within the company.
 
 
By Shin Seungyoung.
(translate by Lee Jeonghwa)