N. American car battery shipments surge in March

* March replacement battery shipments surge 25 pct mo/mo

* OEM shipments climb over 10 pct mo/mo

NEW YORK May 14 (Reuters) - North American shipments of replacement automotive batteries jumped 24.79 percent in March from February and rose nearly 3 percent from March 2011, a U.S. industry group said on Monday.

Battery Council International reported that shipments surged to 9,515,512 units in March from 7,625,187 units in February and 9,269,738 in March 2011.

For the year through March, replacement battery shipments fell 6.05 percent to 25,436,032 units from 27,073,087 a year earlier.

North American shipments of original equipment, or OEM, automotive batteries rose 10.12 percent to 1,708,389 units in March from 1,551,340 units in February and were up 7.84 percent from 1,584,129 units in March 2011, BCI said in its monthly report.

Year-to-date, OEM shipments grew by 16.66 percent to 4,697,680 units from 4,026,967 in the first three months of 2011.

Replacement batteries are shipped to parts dealers and wholesalers. Original equipment batteries are usually transported directly to auto manufacturers.

The Battery Council said the figures reflected reports from all of its members, adjusted to account for the entire industry. (Reporting by Chris Kelly; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick)