S.Korea's automotive export logs double-digit growth in May

South Korea's automotive export logged a double-digit growth last month due to strong demand for environmentally-friendly vehicles, government data showed Wednesday.

Car shipment advanced 18.9 percent from a year earlier to 4.15 billion U.S. dollars in May, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

It marked the highest May figure on the back of robust global demand for eco-friendly vehicles, the export of which surged 46.1 percent to 1.28 billion dollars.

The eco-friendly car shipment took up 30.7 percent of the total in May, up 5.7 percentage points from a year earlier.

The number of exported vehicles was 182,869 in May, up 19.1 percent from the same month of last year.

Auto parts export expanded 7.6 percent to 1.96 billion dollars owing to solid U.S. demand.

In the domestic market, the automotive sale reduced 4.1 percent over the year to 145,464 units in May.

The number of eco-friendly cars, including electric and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, sold in the local market jumped 45.3 percent to 41,003 in May, keeping a record-breaking trend for the third straight month.

The number of vehicles produced in local factories soared 19.8 percent to 307,048 in May, marking the first rebound in three months.