[Click e Stocks] 'Automobile Stocks' Overcome the May Slump

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Junho] Korea Investment & Securities has evaluated that Hyundai Motor and Kia performed well in their global sales volume for May. The sales volume for last month, which was most affected by the shortage of automotive semiconductors, showed a slight decrease compared to the previous month, indicating that the difficult period has been overcome.

Based on wholesale sales, the global sales volume in May increased by 42.7% for Hyundai Motor and 49.2% for Kia. However, compared to the previous month, it decreased by 7.5% and 2.9%, respectively.

Domestic sales decreased by 11.6% for Hyundai Motor and 6.3% for Kia compared to the previous month. This figure clearly reflects the market situation where production is almost immediately adjusted without inventory due to the semiconductor shortage.

Korea Investment & Securities stated that since March, the automotive semiconductor issue has been weighing down automobile stocks, but once the supply issue of automotive semiconductors eases, stock prices are ready to rise again at any time. They also forecasted that with the solid May sales figures, the expansion of automotive semiconductor orders by semiconductor companies this month, and the increased operating rates of facilities that were halted due to an accident in February, stock prices are expected to improve starting this month.

Jinwoo Kim, a researcher at Korea Investment & Securities Research Center, said, "Looking at May sales, the volume disruption is not significant and profitability is actually improving," adding, "It is time to refocus on automobiles that are overcoming the semiconductor bottleneck after vaccination."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.