South Korea's rare earth imports from China jumped 22.4 percent last month due to a fall in import prices, customs data showed Thursday.

South Korea purchased a total of 154 tons of rare earth material from China in July, up 22.4 percent from a month earlier, according to the Korea Customs Service (KCS).

In terms of value, rare earth import from China grew 9 percent on-month to 4.17 million U.S. dollars in July, indicating that falling import prices contributed to slower growth in import value than import volume.

Rare earth materials, including scandium and yttrium, are key components for modern-day technologies such as hybrid electric vehicles, liquid crystal display (LCD) and other high-tech products.

Rare earth imports from Japan declined 13.2 percent on-month to 50 tons last month, while import from France jumped 32 percent to 7 tons over the cited period.

Meanwhile, magnesium imports from China expanded 17.1 percent on-month to 1,058 tons in July, with inbound shipments of tungsten from the world's No.2 economy surging 32.3 percent to 47 tons. Cobalt imports from China climbed 17.7 percent to 513 tons over the cited period.