South Korea's automobile exports fell nearly 5 percent in November from a year earlier due to a global shortage of automotive chips, data showed Wednesday.

Outbound shipments of automobiles came to 178,994 units last month, down 4.7 percent from the same month a year earlier, according to the data from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

In terms of value, however, exports advanced 3.3 percent to $4.12 billion in November, the largest monthly tally since April when the supply bottleneck of chips began.

The increase in value came as overseas shipments of eco-friendly vehicles surged to a record monthly high of $1.23 billion.

The cumulative amount of exported eco-friendly cars passed the $10 billion mark this year for the first time.

The data also showed overseas shipments of auto parts declined 2.2 percent from a year earlier to $1.84 billion in November

Meanwhile, the production of automobiles shrank 6.6 percent on-year to 302,983 units last month amid the supply shortage of automotive chips, and domestic demand also tumbled 16 percent on-year to 143,815 units. (Yonhap)