Automobiles sell well

Automobile sales are brisk. Up until mid-February, the automobile industry expected to have great difficulty in sales but the sales began to show signs of recovery at the end of February and further picked up this month.

According to figures compiled by the industry Monday, five leading carmakers such as Hyundai, Kia, Daewoo, Renault Samsung and Ssangyong sold as many as 40,000 units in the first 15 days of this month. Given the orders, which have risen sharply since the middle of the month, the total sales for April is estimated to reach 128,000 to 130,000 units, some 4 to 5 percent up from the previous month`s 123,843. Analysts attributed the increase to the introduction of new models and the relaxation of sales conditions such as installment payments over an extended period of time.

Experts also blamed a cut in interest rates for the rise. They said that funds are flocking to the market of durable consumption goods like a car away from the financial sector due to low interest rates.

The domestic sales of automobiles peaked in last July with 145,000 units but have since declined for the sixth consecutive month. Last February, the sales figure bounced back to 103,000 units and then regained the level of last August.

Kim Dong-Won daviskim@donga.com