S.Korea's imported car sale falls 12.2 pct in July

SEOUL, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's imported car sale logged a double-digit fall last month due to a prolonged supply shortage of semiconductors used to make vehicles, industry data showed Wednesday.

The number of imported vehicles sold here was 21,423 in July, down 12.2 percent from a year earlier, according to the Korea Automobile Importers and Distributors Association.

For the first seven months of this year, the domestic sale of imported cars stood at 152,432 units, down 11.5 percent compared to the same period of last year.

German automaker BMW ranked first in terms of automotive sales here among foreign companies by selling 5,490 units last month.

Another German carmaker Mercedes-Benz came next with the local sale of 5,456 units, followed by Audi with 1,865 units, Volkswagen with 1,041 units and Volvo with 1,018 units respectively.

The number of European models sold here was 17,340 in July, accounting for 80.9 percent of the total.

U.S. and Japanese brands recorded the market shares of 12.2 percent and 6.8 percent each last month.