Hyundai feels the pinch of chip shortage, global sales fall 4.5%

Hyundai Motor, South Korea's biggest carmaker, said on Friday that its sales fell 4.5 per cent in June from a year earlier, as a global chip shortage continued to affect its vehicle production and sales.

Hyundai Motor sold a total of 340,534 vehicles in June, down from 356,631 units a year earlier, the company said in a statement.

Domestic sales fell 13 percent to 59,510 units from 68,407 during the period, while overseas sales declined 2.5 percent to 281,024 from 288,224, reports Yonhap news agency.

From January to June, sales dropped 7.6 per cent to 1,877,193 autos from 2,031,185 units during the same period of last year.

Hyundai has set a sales goal of 4.32 million units for this year, higher than the 3.89 million sold last year.

Hyundai said on Thursday it is setting up a new investment affiliate in the US, in a follow-up to its pledge to invest $10.5 billion in the world's largest economy.

The new affiliate, tentatively named HMG Global, will be established in Delaware state in the US and funded by Hyundai's three flagship arms -- Hyundai Motor, Kia and Hyundai Mobis, according to regulatory filings posted by the companies.

Hyundai Motor and its smaller affiliate Kia will together inject a combined $578 million in the new American unit.

The new US affiliate is expected to be launched around August following regulatory approval.

The move came as a follow-up to Hyundai's announcement in late May it will spend $5.5 billion to build electric vehicle and battery cell plants in Georgia.
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