South Korea's exports lost 2.9 percent on-year in the first 20 days of October due to falling demand for vehicles and petroleum products and fewer working days, data showed Monday.

Outbound shipments reached $32.77 billion in the Oct. 1-20 period, compared with $33.74 billion tallied a year earlier, according to the data from the Korea Customs Service.

Per-day exports, however, rose 1 percent on-year to $2.62 billion.

The number of working days during the cited period of this year came to 12.5 days, compared with 13 days a year earlier.

Imports shed 10.1 percent on-year to $33.76 billion during the period, resulting in a trade surplus of $1 billion.

In September, exports rose 7.5 percent on-year to US$58.7 billion, the 12th straight monthly gain, government data showed.

Exports have led South Korea's overall economic recovery since late last year after a yearlong downturn.

Exports of semiconductors surged 36.1 percent to $7.1 billion during the first 20 days of October.

Semiconductor exports accounted for 21.7 percent of the country's total exports during the cited period, up 6.2 percentage points from a year earlier amid an industry cycle upturn.

Auto exports, however, fell 3.3 percent to $3.19 billion, and those of automotive parts went down 2 percent to $1.03 billion.

Sales of steel products decreased 5.5 percent to $2.24 billion, and exports of petroleum products tumbled 40 percent to $2.1 billion.

Ship sales lost 16.2 percent to $1.36 billion.

By nation, shipments to China went up 1.2 percent to $7.24 billion, while exports to the United States inched down 2.6 percent to $5.62 billion.

Exports to Vietnam advanced 1.1 percent to $3.19 billion, but those to the European Union fell 8.9 percent to $3.16 billion.

Exports to Taiwan soared 90 percent to $1.92 billion, while shipments to Japan slid 12.6 percent to $14.5 billion.

The government expected exports to advance 9 percent this year to reach a record high of over $700 billion. (Yonhap)