New vehicle sales in Japan slumped by more than a fifth in June as the production disruption from the March earthquake lingered, but the data showed a big improvement from the previous months as more parts became available. In neighbouring South Korea, Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors extended their strong run with double-digit growth, as Hyundai ate further into the market share of Japanese carmakers.
Japanese vehicle sales, excluding 660cc microcars, fell 23 percent to 225,024 last month, marking the 10th straight month of declines. But officials put on a rare optimistic face on the result, saying sales were well off the post-disaster trough. Japanese auto sales fell by a third in May, the lowest total for the month since 1968. In June, an average 10,228 cars were registered per day, up from 7,482 in May and 5,441 in April, when cars were assembled at a significantly reduced pace with hundreds of parts still missing.
Including minivehicles, which are tallied separately, new vehicle sales in Japan, the world's third-biggest car market, slid 22 percent to 351,828 in June. Hyundai's global sales rose 12.3 percent to a monthly record in June, helped by strong sales in the United States, China, India and South Korea. Kia's sales surged 22 percent. Sales at top car maker Maruti Suzuki India declined 8.8 percent to 80,298 vehicles, marking the first fall since December 2008 and pushing its shares down as much as 2.6 percent.
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