South Korea’s imported car sale logs double-digit fall in January

Seoul, Korea | Xinhua | South Korea’s imported car sale logged a double-digit fall last month owing to the global supply shortage of semiconductors used to make vehicles, industry data showed on Monday.

The number of imported vehicles, sold in the local market, was 17,361 in January, down 22.2 percent from the same month of last year, according to the Korea Automobile Importers & Distributors Association.

The double-digit reduction was attributed to the supply shortage of chips and the seasonal factor.

German automaker BMW ranked first in terms of automotive sale by selling 5,550 vehicles here last month.

Another German carmaker Mercedes-Benz came next with the sale of 3,405 vehicles, followed by Audi with the sale of 1,269 units, Volkswagen with 1,213 units, and Volvo with 1,004 units each.

The domestic sale of European brands came in at 14,491 units last month, taking up 83.5 percent of the total. The sale of U.S. and Japanese brands amounted to 1,758 units and 1,112 units each.