South Korea's import prices increased last month in spite of little change in global oil prices and the won-dollar exchange rates. 

According to the Bank of Korea(BOK) on Friday, the import price index for March came to 83-point-94, up half of a percent from a month earlier.

The nation's import prices have risen for three straight months since January. 

A BOK official attributed the rise to a 500 percent on-month increase in the import prices of carbon and graphite electrodes, used in electric arc furnace steelmaking.  

The prices of the commodity soared due to a spike in demand from countries like China, which has been replacing inefficient and polluting furnaces with electric arc furnaces.