Kia Motors Corp., South Korea’s second-largest automaker, said Friday that its sales in June rose

21.8 percent from a year earlier as a jump in overseas sales offset decreased domestic demand.

The company sold 217,315 vehicles overall last month, compared with 178,391 vehicles sold a year earlier. Domestic sales dropped 5 percent on-year to 42,200 units in June, but exports spiked 30.7 percent to 175,115 units.

In the first half of the year, sales surged 25.3 percent on-year to over 1.24 million units, the highest tallied for a six month period. Domestic sales moved up 8.8 percent to reach 248,345 units from January through June, with exports soaring 30.3 percent to 992,702 vehicles. 

(Yonhap News)