Korean Car Production Plummets to Historic Low
20 August, 2019
Korea's car production will fall to the lowest in 16 years this year amidst declining demand.
According to performance reports by Hyundai, Kia and Ssangyong on Sunday, the three companies produced 1.73 million cars in Korea in the first half of this year, down 1.6 percent from a year ago and 3.7 percent from two years ago.
The major reason is decreasing demand, which fell to some 730,000 cars in the first half of this year, down 6.1 percent on-year.
Ssangyong stopped operation of factories for four days last month. Hyundai and Kia also decreased production slightly.
Renault Samsung and GM Korea also slashed production here. Renault Samsung's original equipment manufacturing of the Nissan Rogue was reduced from 100,000 last year to 60,000 this year, and GM Korea's production shrank with the shutdown of Gunsan plant in May last year.
According to the Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association, the country's car production volume was 4.54 million last year, the lowest since 4.4 million in 2003. The figure peaked in 2012 with 4.98 million after companies expanded plants in the mid-2000s, but began to fall from 2013 when Hyundai and Kia scrapped overnight shifts.
As a result Korea's production rank fell from fifth in the world in 2015 to sixth in 2016 behind India and seventh in 2018 behind Mexico.
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