Hyundai-Kia on Friday denied a report that the two affiliate carmakers achieved a two-digit global market share for the first time last month.

Citing LMC Automotive’s data, Korea Investment & Securities analyst Suh Sung-moon said Hyundai Motor and affiliate Kia Motors together reached a global market share of 10.1 percent last month.

Hyundai Motor spokesman Lee Dong-hyung said, however, that the figure 10.1 percent was inaccurate as it was made based on LMC’s estimate of retail auto sales worldwide last month (6,733,116 units) and the wholesale volume Hyundai-Kia announced early this month (new cars released from Hyundai-Kia factories globally in November).

“Hyundai-Kia delivered 678,522 cars from our factories worldwide last month including those shipped abroad, but we don’t know how many of our cars were sold to consumers around the world last month,” Lee said.

“We cannot calculate our November global market share for now, but I don’t think we would have reached 10 percent yet.”

Suh said that while the figure 10.1 percent might not be accurate, it was clear that Hyundai-Kia’s global market share hit record highs in October and November as their sales volume peaked in those two consecutive months.

“The two automakers’ sales volume last month rose 9.5 percent from a year ago as their sales volume in China jumped 29 percent on-year,” Suh said.

“Clearly, their global market share also rose to its highest ever in November.”

Hyundai-Kia, which announces their global market share along with their earnings each quarter, said they accounted for 8.6 percent of the world’s auto market in the third quarter. The figure has remained above 8 percent since 2010, according to Lee.

Suh projected that Hyundai-Kia’s annual global market share would rise to 8.9 percent this year and 9.3 percent next year, maintaining a “buy” for both companies’ stocks and target prices of 320,000 won per share for Hyundai and 105,000 won per share for Kia.

By Kim So-hyun (sophie@heraldcorp.com)