AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)03/04 Report--

Hyundai Motor released its latest sales figures for February, Reuters reported. The company sold only 275,000 vehicles worldwide in February this year, down 13% from 316,000 in the same period last year. Last month's sales were the lowest in history in 10 years.

In terms of specific markets, Hyundai's sales in South Korea's domestic market fell 26% year-on-year to 39,300 units in February, while overseas sales fell 10% year-on-year to 235,000 units, with sales in the United States up 16% year-on-year to 53,000 units, a record high over the years. But even so, Hyundai is still struggling to recover Hyundai's sales weakness in South Korea and China.

Hyundai Motor is the first car company to announce sales results, and it is also the first car company to hand over such a "bleak" car. The epidemic has affected the entire auto industry, and Hyundai's record low sales also portend a difficult situation for other car companies. Hyundai said the main reason for the sharp decline in sales was that the epidemic weakened consumers 'desire to buy cars, directly reflecting the impact of the epidemic on the auto industry.

The domestic situation in South Korea is more severe than that in China. At present, new confirmed cases in China are decreasing, while new confirmed cases in South Korea are increasing rapidly. It is understood that the new crown pneumonia epidemic is likely to cause nearly 3000 deaths, most of which are concentrated in China, while South Korea is the country with the largest number of infections outside China. According to the latest statistics released by the Ministry of Disease Management of South Korea, up to now, there have been 5328 confirmed cases of new crown pneumonia in South Korea, 34 cases have been cured and 33 cases have died. South Korea's coronavirus cases are concentrated in Daegu and Beigyeongsangdo, the country's fourth-largest cities, which are home to about 20 percent of auto parts suppliers, statistics from the Korean Bureau of Statistics show.

In early February, Hyundai Motor's South Korean plant announced a shutdown due to an interruption in the supply of automotive wiring harnesses. Hyundai Motor announced it would resume production on Feb.17 as Chinese parts makers resumed production for six consecutive years. On Feb.19, Hyundai Motor's factories in South Korea were shut down again after an employee of the supply chain manufacturer was diagnosed with stopping production and failing to supply parts needed for the factory on time. A Hyundai spokesman said that although most of the wiring harness parts from China arrived at the South Korean factory one after another, they had not received enough wiring harness supply, and the company once again decided to flexibly arrange the opening time of each factory.

On Feb.28, Hyundai Motor suspended the market at its Ulsan plant and shut down production at its No.2 plant after an employee diagnosed with New Crown Pneumonia, a total of 4000 employees, was detected infected with the virus.

A Hyundai spokesman said production at the Ulsan plant, which produces several of Hyundai's best-selling models, such as the Palisa, Tucson, Santa Fe and Genesis GV80 SUVs, resumed on March 2.

At present, most car companies have not released relevant sales data, which is expected to be announced in the next two weeks. Hyundai's performance in February also gave the market a "warning needle", in the epidemic caused sales and market disruption, in the car market is still depressed background, car sales and production will be hit hard in February, and this impact will continue to affect the second quarter. Under the background that the epidemic situation has not been eliminated, how to increase sales volume and promote production capacity is an urgent problem for all automobile enterprises to consider.

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