April 26, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] Kia Motors said on Jan. 2 its vehicle sales fell 17.2 percent in December from a year earlier on weaker overseas demand.

The country’s second-largest carmaker by sales sold 226,842 vehicles last month, down from 273,994 units a year earlier, Kia Motors said in a statement.

“The poor monthly results were largely affected by a sharp sales decline in China amid a diplomatic row over the deployment of an advanced THAAD anti-missile system. Lower demand in the United States also drove down sales,” the statement said.

Domestic sales fell 6.2 percent on-year to 46,502 units in December from 49,600. And overseas sales declined 19.6 percent to 180,340 from 224,394 over the same period, it said.

For the whole of 2017, Kia’s sales declined 7.8 percent to 2.75 million autos from 2.98 million in 2016.

By Alex Lee and newswires (alexlee@heraldcorp.com)