Outbound shipment for passenger vehicles amounted to 8.37 billion U.S. dollars in the January-March quarter, down 10.1 percent from a year earlier, according to Korea Customs Service.
It came as the COVID-19 outbreak across the world weakened the global sedan demand.
Passenger car exports to Russia, Germany and Britain tumbled in double figures in the March quarter.
Import of passenger vehicles inched down 1.3 percent over the year to 2.36 billion dollars in the first quarter.
Sedan import from Germany and the United States jumped 48.1 percent and 31.7 percent each in the quarter, but import from Japan plunged 44.2 percent amid the continued campaign here to boycott Japanese products.
The boycott campaign was sparked by a trade dispute between Seoul and Tokyo that lasted since July last year.
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