Combined November sales of vehicles at South Korea’s five automakers rose to 574,781 compared to 516,718 last year. Exports gained 15.1 percent to 470,334 vehicles over last year with domestic sales down 3.5 percent to 104,447. These sales figures come amidst a series of strikes. Union workers at Hyundai stopped work for a few hours last week to demand better labor laws. The strike cost the company 9,380 units or 132.3 billion won ($142.5 million) in lost output.
Union members at Kia Motors, GM Daewoo Automotive and Ssangyong Motor Company stopped production for a few hours as well.
November sales for each of South Korea’s automakers:
- Hyundai 259,310 an increase of 3.1 percent over last year
- Kia 140,118 an increase of 17.2 percent over last year
- GM Daewoo 150,742 an increase of 24.2 percent over last year
- Renault Samsung 13,442 an increase of 28.8 percent over last year
- Ssangyong Motor Co. 11,169 a drop of 20.3 percent over last year
Our take? Hyundai’s relationships with its unions may be the automaker’s Archilles heel if it doesn’t do more to resolve the issues.
Via Reuters
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