South Korea's largest carmaker Hyundai Motor has scaled down its sales targets in China and the United States due to tough market conditions, officials said Monday.
The firm said its venture in China reduced its annual target from 320,000 units to 260,000 in the first such move since the Chinese business was launched in 2002.
“The company will cut prices in China to cope with poor sales and competition,” a Hyundai spokesman told AFP.
In the first seven months of this year, Hyundai saw sales in China falling 18.2 percent from a year earlier to 128,587 units.
In the US market Hyundai lowered this year's target from 555,000 units to 510,000, citing weak demand caused by subprime woes.
“Demand is expected to remain weak in the US due to the US subprime mortgage loan problem,” the spokesman said.
Hyundai, which with affiliate Kia Motors is the world's sixth-largest automaker, sold 280,106 cars in the US in the first seven months, down 0.4 percent from a year earlier.
Hyundai officials say growth is being threatened by global competition.
It also faces falling productivity, labour disputes and shrinking profits. Net profit plunged 34 percent to 1.53 trillion won (1.63 billion dollars) last year due to strikes and the won's rise.
The company faces another possible stoppage after its union voted on Saturday for a strike. The union has agreed to put off industrial action until after Wednesday and to resume negotiations Monday.
Hyundai has offered a 5.4 percent rise, or 78,000 won (83 dollars), in monthly basic salary — compared with an 8.9 percent increase demanded by the union in addition to a better bonus and other benefits.
The company has been hit by walkouts every year except in 1994 since its foundation in 1987. Last year employees stopped work for a total of 33 days, causing 1.3 trillion won in lost sales, according to the company.
So far this year a 13-day partial strike over a bonus dispute and protests against a free-trade deal with the United States have cost 336 billion won.
