Seoul: South Korea’s auto exports declined in the second quarter amid surging demand for foreign luxury cars among local consumers, customs data showed on Friday.
Auto exports by South Korea’s carmakers dipped 4.7 percent from a year earlier to $11.09 billion in the second quarter, according to Korea Customs Service. In the first quarter, the car shipments increased 8.9 percent.
During the April-June period, $2.44 billion of foreign luxury cars were imported, less than a quarter of the export value but up 26.2 percent from the same period of last year.
South Korea exported the largest value of cars to the US, while importing the biggest luxury vehicles from Germany.
The per-unit export price averaged $13,963 in the second quarter, down 4.7 percent from a year earlier. The per-unit import price fell 0.8 percent to $30,296 due to the implementation of free trade deals with Europe and the US.