In April this year, South Korea's total car output decreased by 2.5 percent year on year and was up 5.7 percent compared to March this year, totaling 386,446 units, according to a report released by the Korean Ministry of Knowledge Economy (MKE). The report says that the fall on year-on-year basis was due to reduced working hours and sluggish export growth.
In April, the introduction of new models by domestic car producers and rising demand for imported cars boosted vehicle sales in the domestic market by three percent compared to April 2012, to 132,938 units. Meanwhile, South Korean car exports fell 5.6 percent year on year to 261,501 vehicles.
In the first four months of the current year, South Korea's car production fell by 4.5 percent year on year to 1,500,490 units. Compared with the same period of the previous year, domestic sales of South Korean cars increased 0.4 percent in the first four months. Imported car sales rose 20.9 percent to 48,284 vehicles, while sales of domestic production cars fell 1.5 percent to 443,203 units, both on year-on-year basis. Meanwhile, in the first four months of the year, car exports from South Korea fell by 7.9 percent year on year to 1,041,685 units.
