Global Car Export

South Korea exported 2.62 million vehicles, down 11.8% year on year, to take the fourth place and be overtaken by Mexico for the first time in history.
South Korea exported 2.62 million vehicles, down 11.8% year on year, to take the fourth place and be overtaken by Mexico for the first time in history.

 

It has been found that Mexico exported a total of 2,768,268 cars last year, up 0.2% from a year earlier, to come in third behind Germany and Japan, which exported 4.65 million and 4.63 million cars last year, respectively.

During the same period, South Korea exported 2.62 million vehicles, down 11.8% year on year, to take the fourth place and be overtaken by Mexico for the first time in history. Depending on the volume of exports by American automakers, which has yet to be calculated, South Korea may take the fifth place. The United States exported approximately 2.7 million vehicles in 2015.

Hyundai Motor Company’s exports fell 12.7% to 1,009,292 last year, when Kia Motors’ fell 10.9% to 996,506. This is mainly because of the strikes by their workers that resulted in a decline in production of about 200,000 cars. GM Korea’s exports dropped by 10.1% in 2016, too.

The increase in the exports from Mexico is because global automakers are increasing their production in the country one after another to better penetrate the North American and Latin American markets. Although the exports from Mexico are forecast to be affected by the Donald Trump administration’s policy, South Korea is unlikely to catch up with Mexico in the near future in that South Korean automakers are also increasing their overseas production to avoid high labor costs and strained labor relations in their own country.

Last year, car production in South Korea fell 7.2% from a year ago and totaled 4,228,536 while that in India added up to 4,488,985. In contrast, South Korean carmakers produced 4,652,787 cars abroad last year, up 5.5% from a year earlier, and manufactured more cars abroad than in South Korea for the first time ever. Last year’s domestic production volume was a six-year low.



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