According to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, shipments of vehicles plunged 16 percent to 258,067 units last month from the same month of 2012, following a 21.9 percent year-on decline in February.
Car exports fell last month as a result of a 13.1 percent year-on reduction in output of the country's five automakers to 365,768 units, which was caused by shortened working hours, ministry officials said.
Domestic auto sales, meanwhile, edged down 0.3 percent to 131,136 vehicles in March from a year earlier, the ministry said.
However, sales of imported vehicles soared 13.3 percent to 12,063 units over the cited period, thanks to robust sales of cars with an engine capacity of 2,000cc or less and German vehicles.
By Josephine Liu Yan Yee
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com