Hyundai and Kia miss 2015 sales target

Hyundai car grillImage copyrightAFP
Image captionHyundai expects to sell more than five million vehicles this year, while Kia expects to sell more than three million vehicles
The South Korean automaker Hyundai Motor and its affiliate Kia Motors missed its global sales targets in 2015 for the first time since the financial crisis.

Automakers, which together are the fifth largest automaker in the world by sales, sold 8.01 million vehicles, lower than the forecast of 8.2 million.

They expect sales to grow by 1.5% in 2016, after a flat performance in the past year.

Both brands are facing stiff competition in recent years.

US and Japanese rivals have lost ground to the US recovery, while demand in emerging markets and the world's largest car market - China - was cooling.

At the same time, the weaker yen benefited Japanese automakers as a stronger Korean Won, and plunging currency markets, such as Russia and Brazil has reduced the value of foreign sales of South Korean automakers.

Revenues hit

In October, Hyundai said its quarterly profit fell to its lowest level in five years. Its shares fell more than 12% last year.

The purpose of sales automakers this year marks the weak sales growth over the past 10 years.

The economic slowdown in China, which is the largest market in terms of the group, will continue to have an impact on its growth this year, the company said.

Sales in the second largest economy in the world fell in the first 11 months of last year.