Kia Motors sales up 15.2 pct in July

Kia Motors Corp., South Korea's second-largest automaker, said Monday that its sales in July rose 15.2 percent from a year earlier as a jump in overseas sales offset decreased domestic demand. The company sold 206,600 vehicles overall last month, compared with 179,390 vehicles a year earlier. Domestic sales dropped 9.7 percent on-year to 40,706 units last month, but exports shot up 23.5 percent to 165,894 units. Weak domestic sales were in part caused by fewer operating days at local plants due to union workers taking time off to discuss and vote on this year's pay raise negotiations that were settled on July 22. In the first seven months of the year, sales surged 23.9 percent to over 1.44 million units. Domestic sales moved up 5.8 percent to reach 289,051 units from January through July, with exports soaring 29.4 percent to just under 1.16 million vehicles.