Sales of imported vehicles in South Korea fell 8.7 percent in March as chip shortages continued to affect vehicle production, an industry association said.

The number of newly registered foreign vehicles fell to 24,912 units last month from 27,297 units a year ago, the Korea Automobile Importers & Distributors Association said in a statement.

The three bestselling models last month were Mercedes-Benz’s E 250 sedan and E 350 4MATIC sedan and BMW’s 520 sedan, it said.  

In March, German brands sold a combined 18,763 units, down 1 percent from 18,954 the previous year. Japanese carmakers sold a total of 1,202 units, down 31 percent from 1,737 a year earlier. (Yonhap)