South Korean carmakers marked their record monthly exports last month due to robust overseas demand for small-sized cars and sport utility vehicles (SUVs) manufactured domestically, a government report showed Monday.

Overseas automobile shipments by five local carmakers, including Hyundai Motor, Kia Motors, GM Korea, Renault Samsung Motors and Ssangyong Motor, reached a new monthly high of 305,257 units in March, up 18.1 percent from a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Knowledge Economy. For the first three months of this year, exports surged 20.3 percent on-year to 851,571 units. The ministry attributed the record monthly exports to strong demand from overseas for locally-made small cars and SUVs, of which outbound shipments jumped 30.4 percent and 17.4 percent on- year in March respectively.

The value of March exports reached 4.93 billion U.S. dollars, up 35.1 percent from the previous year. The average unit price of exported vehicles advanced 8.3 percent on-year to 14,300 dollars in March.

Car production in South Korea expanded 6.3 percent on-year to 420,759 vehicles in March amid brisk exports, according to the ministry.

Output by top automaker Hyundai Motor surged 19.5 percent on- year to 180,208 units in March due to solid exports, but the No. 2 manufacturer Kia Motors saw its car production edged up 2 percent due to reduction in working hours.

Meanwhile, local car sales shrank 8.9 percent on-year to 131, 510 units as weak demand for locally-made cars outweighed strong demand for imported cars, the ministry said.

Domestic sales of automobile manufactured by local carmakers decreased 9.9 percent on-year to 120,862 units in March due to fragile domestic demand for cars amid high oil prices, but imported car sales grew 3.5 percent to 10,648 units amid solid demand for German luxury cars and new models launched by Japanese automakers.