SKorea's Hyundai, Kia slash 2008 sales forecast

SEOUL: Hyundai Motor Co and Kia Motors Corp cut their joint 2008 sales forecast by 12.5 per cent on Monday and said they would freeze pay for managers amid slumping vehicle demand.

Separately, Ssangyong Motor Co, South Korea's smallest automaker, said it may not be able to meet its December payroll on time.

Hyundai and Kia said in a statement that they now expect total sales to reach 4.2 million vehicles this year, compared with an earlier forecast of 4.8 million. Overseas inventories, meanwhile, are expected to reach 1.06 million vehicles, the statement said.

The two companies, which dominate the South Korean car industry, form the world's fifth-biggest automotive group. Kia is a Hyundai affiliate.

In addition to freezing management pay, the statement also said that beginning this week Hyundai will curtail working hours at two separate production sites, including one that manufactures buses.

Hyundai earlier this month slashed overtime for the first time since 1998.

The two automakers were in an "emergency management structure to overcome the crisis," the statement said.

Hyundai and Kia have been expanding aggressively overseas. Hyundai has plants in China, India, Turkey, the United States and the Czech Republic. Kia has plants in China and Slovakia and is building one in the US state of Georgia near Hyundai's Alabama facility.