The number of liquefied petroleum gas powered vehicles in South Korea has been on a steady decline over the past years, government data showed Tuesday, indicating a possible drop in sales of local LPG producers.

According to the data from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the number of LPG-fueled vehicles registered here came to 2,219,370 as of end-August, down 56,291 from end-2015.

The number has steadily declined since 2014 with the rate of decline quickening from an average 4,624 in 2014 to 7,036 this year, it showed.

Such a drop in LPG vehicles creates little or no problems for automakers as they continue to enjoy a boost in sales of gasoline and diesel cars instead.

Gasoline-fueled vehicles and diesel cars, on the other hand, have been on a steady rise, gaining an average 29,380 and 48,988 units each month, respectively.

As of end-August, the number of gasoline vehicles registered here stood at a little over 10 million with that of diesel cars coming to over 9.01 million.

The drop in LPG cars, however, does create concerns for the LPG industry as the transportation sector accounts for nearly half of local consumption of petroleum gas.

In the first eight months of the year, LPG consumed in the petrochemical industry jumped 90.4 percent on-year to some 1.98 million tons, while the amount consumed by other industrial sectors also surged 27.7 percent to 631,000 tons.

The amount consumed by the transportation industry slipped 5.3 percent to 2.34 million tons, according to the state-run Korea National Oil Corp. (Yonhap)