Exports by SK Group, South Korea's third-largest conglomerate, hit a fresh record quarterly high in the first quarter due to the group's strong drive to nurture exports as its key growth engine, the group said Monday.

Exports by SK Group's manufacturing affiliates, including SK Innovation and SK Hynix, reached a new high of 14.19 billion U.S. dollars in the three months ending March 30, up 43.5 percent from the same period of last year, according to an e-mailed statement. The exports accounted for 10.5 percent of the country's total exports during the quarter.

The record-breaking exports came after the group chairman Chey Tae-won has maintained his strategy to turn the group into the export-driven conglomerate since his inauguration as the head, the statement said. The group's exports for the first quarter were more than 14 times larger than those in 2002 when the exports stood merely at 970 million dollars.

"South Korea's export growth weakened sharply this year due to the global economic slowdown, but SK Group achieved its strong export trend caused by solid demand for high-valued petrochemical products and PEF films manufactured by its affiliates," said an official at the group.

The group expected its exports to reach a new record high of 55 billion dollars in 2012, forecasting that the share of exports will top 70 percent of total revenues this year, higher than 62 percent tallied in the previous year.