(Reuters) -Thousands of South Korean truckers went on strike for the seventh day on Monday. They are upset about their pay because fuel prices are going up. This has stopped production, slowed down port operations, and added new risks to an already stressed global supply chain.
The industry ministry said that as of Sunday, the ongoing trucker strike had cost South Korean industries like auto, steel, petrochemicals, and cement about 1.6 trillion won ($1.2 billion).
Here are more details about the disruption, how much production was lost, and what the union and businesses did in response.
AUTOS
As of Sunday, the industry ministry said that the truckers’ strike had caused the South Korean auto industry to stop making about 5,400 vehicles, which was worth about 257 billion won.
The union said that about 6,000 cars are made every day at Hyundai’s Ulsan factories. According to the company’s union, the strike has cost the automaker more than 3,800 vehicles, which is worth up to 120 billion won.
Customers told Reuters that some employees at Hyundai Motor and its subsidiary, Kia Corp, used brand-new cars to make deliveries. The spokesperson for Hyundai Motor Group was not available for comment right away.
A spokesperson for Hankook Tire & Technology Co. Ltd. said that the company’s daily shipments to big automakers like Volkswagen AG (OTC: VWAGY) and Mercedes-Benz Group AG have dropped by about 50 percent.
As of Sunday, the ministry of industry said that about 640,000 tyres worth about 57 billion won had problems getting shipped.
BATTERIES
As a precaution, one battery maker sent out shipments before the strike, said a worker at the company who did not want to be named. The company didn’t have any problems last week, but an official said that if the strike went on, they would look at how they handled shipments.
LG Energy Solution Ltd, SK On, SK Innovation Co Ltd’s battery division, and Samsung (KS: 005930) SDI Co Ltd control more than a quarter of the global market for electric vehicle batteries.
SEMICONDUCTORS
Park Jeong-tae, a union official, said that the truckers plan to stop sending the raw materials that are used to make semiconductors in Ulsan.
Samsung Electronics (OTC: SSNLF) Co Ltd and SK Hynix Inc, two of the world’s largest memory chip manufacturers, both said they had nothing to say.
Because it has a lot of raw materials on hand, a big tech company doesn’t expect any problems in the near future, said a company official who asked not to be named.
CEMENT and STEEL
POSCO (NYSE: PKX), a steel company, said on Monday that it had stopped work at some plants because there wasn’t enough room to store products that hadn’t been shipped yet.
Because of the strike, it was hard to move about 450,000 tonnes of steel products worth about 698 billion won.
Since the strike started last Tuesday, the Korea Cement Association said that the cement industry has lost about 15 billion won per day in sales.
As of Sunday, the industry ministry said that the strike had cost cement companies about 75 billion won.
REFINERS, PETROCHEMICALS
The Korea Petrochemical Industry Association said that since the strike, South Korea’s average daily shipments of petrochemical products have dropped by 90%, to about 74,000 metric tonnes.
As of Friday, the industry ministry said that the strike had cost the country’s petrochemical sector about 500 billion won.
South Korea is the fifth biggest refiner in the world.
HITES JINRO
Yonhap news said that more than 20 people, including members of the truckers union, were arrested for blocking the HiteJinro Co., Ltd. brewery in Icheon.
A HiteJinro spokesperson wouldn’t say anything about the arrests, but they did confirm that members of the truckers’ union were blocking access to both of the company’s breweries in Icheon and Cheongju as of Sunday, which cut shipments by about 40%.
PORTS AND CONTENTS
Busan Port, which is the world’s seventh-biggest container port, said that the strike had cut its container traffic by two-thirds.
A government official said that container storage sites are getting full and that officials are talking about how to get more.
A government official said that the movement of containers at Ulsan port, which makes up about 10% of South Korea’s port traffic, has been stopped since Tuesday.
($1 = 1,286.6200 won)
