HONG KONG (Yonhap News) – South Korea's second-largest automaker, Kia Motors Corp., ranked 10th in terms of China's auto market share during the first seven months of this year, company officials said Thursday.

Kia Motors said it sold 222,158 units of vehicles in China from January to July, up 21.5 percent on-year.

The South Korean automaker outperformed its peers in China, which recorded a growth rate of 9.2 percent on average.

The company officials said Kia aims to sell 430,000 units this year. The car maker's sales in China reached more than 300,000 units for all of 2010, compared to shipments of 241,300 units a year earlier.

The sales growth was attributed to growing demand in China and marketing activities to attract the country's young consumers, who show increasing interest in its new models.

Kia has been steadily expanding its presence in China, rising from being the 16th-largest automobile seller in China in 2008 to 13th place in 2009 and in 2010.

Its larger affiliate Hyundai Motor and Kia have been aggressively pushing into China as the country has become the world's largest automobile market since 2009.

Hyundai Motor Group, which includes both Hyundai and Kia, said earlier it aims to sell 1.15 million vehicles in China this year.