South Korea’s car export growth slowed in April as overseas sales by smaller local carmakers contracted from a year earlier, a government report showed Tuesday.

Overseas vehicle shipments reached 276,639 units last month, up a modest 3.9 percent gain from 264,934 units sold a year earlier, the report by the Ministry of Knowledge Economy said.

The latest tally marks the second month in a row export growth numbers fell compared to the previous month, it said.

In February, exports surged 51.2 percent on-year to 299,053, while sales numbers jumped 18.1 percent on-year to 305,257 vehicles in March.

The ministry said shipments of cars by Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Motors Corp., the flagship companies of Hyundai Motor Group, the world’s fifth-largest carmaker, grew a solid 9.6 percent and 10.1 percent each. Foreign sales of GM Korea Co., Renault Samsung Motors Co. and Ssangyong Motor Co., however, all posted negative growth.

“Hyundai and Kia are continuing to do well in foreign markets thanks to the popularity of such models as the Sonata, Optima and Elantra, but other carmakers have not done so well,” the ministry said.

It also said the parliamentary elections held on April 11 cut back the total working days last month, which hurt exports.

For the first four months of 2012, the ministry said exports of locally made cars amounted to slightly more than 1.13 million units, a gain of 16 percent from a year earlier.

Despite the increase in overseas sales, the latest report showed car production gaining just 0.2 percent on-year to 396,184 units, with domestic sales contracting 4.5 percent to 129,045.

The ministry said high fuel prices and lingering economic uncertainties affected local sales.

Production at Hyundai and Kia rose vis-a-vis April 2011, but numbers for the three other companies fell.

In the January-April period, total production rose 6.4 percent to 1.57 million, although domestic sales dropped 6.5 percent on-year to 489,686 units, according to the report. 

(Yonhap News)