S. Korean carmakers boost sales by 12% in March

South Korea's five carmakers sold 672,643 vehicles in March, up 12 percent from 601,082 units a year ago, helped by robust overseas demand for SUVs.

Overseas sales of Hyundai Motor Co., Kia Corp., GM Korea Co., Renault Samsung Motors Corp., and SsangYong Motor Co., climbed 18 percent from 450,057 in March of last year to 531,672 last month.

However, domestic sales fell 6.7 percent to 140,971 units in March from 151,025 a year ago.

Hyundai's sales surged 22 percent to 375,924 units from 307,176 last year, while Kia's jumped 8.6 percent to 251,362 from 231,543 a year ago.

The increased sales were attributed to a base effect as sales and production in the same month of last year were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

There was strong overseas demand for Hyundai's Palisade, Tucson, and Santa Fe SUVs, and Kia's Sportage and Sorento SUVs.

Sales were also brisk at home for the GV70 and GV80 SUVs under Hyundai's independent Genesis.

The three other carmakers suffered declines in their March sales.

Renault Samsung Motors Corp. reported a 43 percent on-year drop in sales from 15,100 last year to 8,572 autos last month due to lack of new models.

GM Korea's sales declined 22 percent from 37,918 a year ago to 29,633 units last month, while SsangYong's dropped 24 percent from 9,345 in March last year to 7,122 last month.