SEOUL, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's automotive production rose last month as solid demand for environmentally-friendly vehicles offset the shortage of semiconductors used for cars, a government report showed Wednesday.

The number of vehicles, manufactured in domestic plants, was 234,893 in August, up 0.7 percent from a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

From the previous month, the car production tumbled 21.1 percent last month amid the lack of chips used for cars.

It was offset by robust demand for environmentally-friendly vehicles both at home and abroad.

The country's automotive export gained 4.1 percent over the year to 135,871 units in August. In terms of value, the car export jumped 16.9 percent to 3.03 billion U.S. dollars.

The outbound shipment of environmentally-friendly vehicles soared 92.2 percent in August from a year earlier. The portion of environmentally-friendly vehicles to the total car export hit a new high of 23.3 percent last month.

In the domestic market, the sale of environmentally-friendly vehicles more than doubled to 32,144 units in August on a yearly basis. It took up 24.7 percent of the total local automotive sale.

The combined local car sale shrank 3.3 percent over the year to 130,397 vehicles in August. Enditem

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