Korea's passenger cars exports down 5.7 pct in Q3

South Korea's passenger car exports fell in the third quarter mainly due to a drop in demand from China, customs data showed Friday.

The total value of exported vehicles came to $8.76 billion in the July-September period, down 5.7 percent from the $9.23 billion a year earlier, the Korea Customs Service said.

Carmakers shipped out 639,000 cars in the three-month period, a 2.3 percent decline from the 653,000 in the third quarter of 2014.

"Exports to China nosedived 66 percent on-year to $160 million from $460 million the year before that put a dent in outbound volume," the KCS said.

While exports to China made up 5 percent of the overseas market for local carmakers in the third quarter of last year, this dropped to just 1.8 percent for the same three-month period in 2015, it said.

In addition, the customs service said carmakers usually unveil redesigned models of existing vehicles in the fourth quarter so people tend to hold off buying new cars, which naturally affects sales.

Compared with the previous quarter, exports plunged 21 percent in value from $11.08 billion, with vehicle numbers backtracking 19.6 percent from 794,000 units.

On the import front, the total cars brought into the country were valued at $2.41 billion, up 14.6 percent from a year earlier.

They also expanded 28.8 percent to 82,000 units from 64,000 last year.

Imports, however, dipped 1.1 percent from $2.44 billion reached in the second quarter of the year. The total number of cars imported rose 2.4 percent from the previous quarter when numbers hit 81,000 units.

The average per unit cost of cars shipped abroad fell 3.5 percent on-year to $13,710, while imports dropped 11 percent to $29,264 in the third quarter.

The United States was the largest overseas market for locally made passenger cars, with Germany being the top exporter of cars to South Korea.

In the three-month period, the country's trade surplus in passenger vehicles came to $6.34 billion, down 11 percent from $7.12 billion reached a year earlier, according to the report. (Yonhap)