Ssangyong Motor

SEOUL, Aug 2 Asia Pulse - Local automakers' sales skidded in July from a month ago because of a sharp
slowdown in domestic consumption.

The five carmakers said Monday their combined July sales plunged 12.9 per cent from June to 347,800 units.

Domestic sales for Hyundai Motor Co. (KLSE:005380), Kia Motors Corp. (KSE:000270) and others slipped 7.3
per cent to 84,840 units, the lowest number since January. Exports dropped 14.6 per cent to 262,966 units
from June.

Compared with a year ago, however, July sales jumped 48.9 per cent as exports surged 93.9 per cent.
Domestic sales declined 13.5 per cent year-on-year.

"The year-on-year increase came from the normalization of production from July 2003," said Park Seong-jin,
 an analyst at Woori Securities Co., referring to a strike at Hyundai Motor that ended in July last year.

"It cannot be interpreted as real sales growth. Domestic sales are still very low. It will be hard to expect
 any major turnaround in domestic sales," Park said.

By company, July sales for Hyundai Motor, South Korea's No. 1 automaker, declined 4.9 per cent to 186,929
units from the previous month.

Kia Motors, South Korea's second-largest carmaker, saw sales plunge 26.6 per cent from June to 77,843

units.

Sales for GM Daewoo Auto & Technology Co. and SsangYong Motor Co. (KSE:003620) slipped by 12.5 per cent and
33.1 per cent from June to 67,097 units and 8,913 units, respectively.

Sales for Renault Samsung Motor Co., South Korea's No. 5 carmaker, edged up 2.8 per cent to 7,024 units
from June.

In the January-July period, total sales went up 21.9 per cent to 2.48 million units. Domestic sales slumped
23.9 per cent to 626,395 units year-on-year, while exports leaped 52.9 per cent to 1.86 million units.

- Source from Yonhap News (Aug 02,2004) -