The sale of imported Japanese vehicles tumbled 59.8 percent in September from a year earlier, after dropping 56.9 percent in the previous month, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.
It came as consumers boycotted Japanese products following Japan’s tighter control in July over its export to South Korea of three materials vital to produce memory chips and display panels, the mainstay of the South Korean export.
In August, Japan dropped South Korea off its whitelist of trusted trading partners that are given preferential export treatment. In response, Seoul removed Tokyo from its whitelist of trusted export partners.
In the domestic market, the sale of South Korean and imported vehicles increased 4.1 percent from a year earlier to 133,016 units in September.
The sale of South Korean models added 1.0 percent, while imported car sale jumped 22.4 percent on demand for German luxury models.
Car export diminished 4.8 percent over the year to 171,425 units last month, but in terms of value, the car shipment gained 4 percent to 3.08 billion U.S. dollars on demand for expensive SUVs and environmentally-friendly vehicles.
The auto parts export grew 2.1 percent to 1.79 billon dollars in the month.
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