Quality Imports
The Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association announced on Mar. 2 that a total of 4,442 U.S. cars manufactured in the United States were imported to Korea in January this year, a new monthly record. The amount was 2,039 in January 2014. The import of Japanese cars increased from 2,787 to 4,065 between the two months, and the increment of German car import stood at 19 percent, or 1,547.
The increasing popularity of U.S. cars can be attributed to marketing campaigns by Ford, Chrysler, and GM along with the tariff elimination upon the implementation of the KORUS FTA and the import tariff cut from 2.5 percent to 0 percent scheduled for January next year. Japanese and German cars imported from the United States added to the increment as well.
In the meantime, Korean automakers’ domestic market share is on the decline. Hyundai Motor Company’s domestic sell-through fell 8.8 percent from a year earlier to 46,859 cars in February. The company took up 41.3 percent of the Korean market last year, and the percentage was 69.3 percent when the market share of Kia Motors was added. The figure, which used to be close to 80 percent, dipped below 70 percent for the first time since their merger in Dec. 1998.
In January this year, Hyundai and Kia accounted for 38.1 percent and 27.8 percent of the domestic market, respectively. Expert consensus is that the shares are likely to keep dropping for a while.