Ssangyong Motor aims to sell 32,000 vehicles in 2009

Ssangyong Motor Co., South Korea's smallest carmaker which remains under bankruptcy protection, said Thursday it aims to sell 32,000 cars this year as it battles to survive on its own.

Ssangyong resumed production on Aug. 13 after an often violent strike by hundreds of laid-off workers at its sole assembly plant stopped output for 77 days and cost the company 316 billion won (US$253.3 million) in lost production.

Still, the outlook for Ssangyong remains shaky as many analysts raised questions about the company's viability, particularly because of its shattered reputation from the strike and line-up dominated by expensive, gas-guzzling sport-utility vehicles.

"Our target is to sell 32,000 vehicles for all of this year," Choi Sang-jin, a Ssangyong executive in charge of planning and finance, told reporters. Last year, Ssangyong sold 92,665 vehicles, down 29.6 percent from a year ago.

To meet the target, Ssangyong must sell some 19,000 cars from this month to the end of this year, Choi said.

The target is likely to be seen as one of the key conditions for Ssangyong to receive approval from a bankruptcy court for its turnaround plan. Ssangyong is required to submit the plan to the court on Sept. 15.

In the first seven months of this year, auto sales by Ssangyong, which has an annual production capacity of 200,000 units, plunged about 74 percent from the same period last year to 13,091 units.

Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp. still owns a 51 percent stake in Ssangyong, but the Chinese parent lost management control after the carmaker entered bankruptcy protection in February.

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