SEOUL, KOREA - The Korean share in the global car production has been on a downward trend. According to the Korea Automobile Manufacturers’ Association, the number of cars produced in Korea totaled 4,521,000 units last year, down 0.9 percent from a year ago.
Korea maintained its No. 5 spot in global car production for nine consecutive years. The nation’s domestic car production, however, has continued on a downward trend, after peaking at 4,657,000 units in 2011.
The share of Korea in global car production also decreased to 5.2 percent last year and 5.4 percent in 2012 after peaking at 5.8 percent in 2011. Last year’s figure was the lowest in 11 years since its share in global car production stood at 5.1 percent in 2003.
Unlike the downward movement of Korea’s car production, the world’s car output rose to 87.38 million units last year compared to the figure of 2012, on the back of the expansion in car sales in the Chinese and U.S. market.
In particular, the share of the world’s top five car-producing countries rose to 60.9 percent in 2013 from 55.1 percent in 2008.