Kia Motors Corp., South Korea's second-largest automaker, set a new quarterly sales record in the first three months of the year amid growing overseas demand for its vehicles, the company said Monday.

According to data released by Kia Motors, the company sold 565,355 vehicles in the first quarter, up 20.2 percent from the same period last year. Domestic sales came to 125,631 units with exports rising to 439,724 vehicles.

The company's earnings report for the January-March period is due on Friday.

The record sales are also expected to raise Kia Motors' global market share to over 3 percent for first time in its history, company officials noted. The company's global market share had been steadily growing from 1.9 percent in 2007 to 2.1 percent in 2008, to 2.6 percent in 2009 and 2.9 percent last year.

"We expect our global sales to further grow from the second quarter of the year when we will begin increasing exports of our new flagship mid-size sedan K5 (sold as the Optima in most overseas markets)," a company executive said.

By country, the United States remained the largest market for Kia Motors with 104,774 vehicles sold there in the January-March period. China, the world's largest and also fastest growing market, was next with 95,451 vehicles sold there.

(Yonhap News)