SEOUL, April 19 (Xinhua) -- South Korea posted the biggest surplus in trade of industrial parts and materials in the first quarter due to strong demand for locally-made electronic components, a government report showed Thursday.

Trade surplus in the industrial parts and materials sector reached a new quarterly high of 30.8 billion U.S. dollars in the January-March quarter, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

It more than doubled the trade surplus of 13.5 billion dollars in all industries for the first quarter, making the biggest contribution to the country's trade surplus trend.

Exports for industrial parts and materials advanced 13.3 percent over the year to 74.4 billion dollars in the quarter, marking the second-biggest figure in history. Imports gained 8.2 percent to 43.6 billion dollars.

The industrial parts exports accounted for over half of the total exports of 145.7 billion dollars in all industries.

Electronic parts exports reached 31.3 billion dollars in the first quarter, taking up 42.1 percent of the total industrial component exports.

Chemical products exports amounted to 12.2 billion dollars in the quarter, with those for primary metal products reaching 6.9 billion dollars.

Outbound shipments for most of industrial parts and materials showed an upward momentum, but exports for the transport machine components logged a double-digit decline.