Posted on 14 Jun 2022
South Korea’s largest steel producer Posco halted operations at some production lines at its plant in Pohang in North Gyeongsang province on Monday due to the ongoing strike by unionized cargo truck drivers.
From 7:00am local time, the company suspended production at all four wire rod factories and at one of two cold rolled steel plants in Pohang. These lines mainly produce steel products for home appliances and high-quality construction materials.
As a result, the plant’s daily production will decrease by about 7,500 tonnes of wire rods and 4,500t of cold rolled steel respectively, Kallanish notes.
"If the situation is protracted, the operation of blast furnaces could be suspended," a Posco official said. The operation of its steel plants in Gwangyang remains normal so far.
The strike by truckers in demand for higher wages has led to disruption of cargo transport, followed by a glut of finished steel that could not be shipped. Some steel mills started to use roads in their factories to place steel products.
As a pay increase was not granted, talks did not make any substantial progress. The strike could affect operation of more steel plants in the country.
"If the strike is protracted, we may have to adjust our production," a Hyundai Steel official said, according to the Korea Times reports.
In the past several days, South Korean steelmakers were severely hit by the protest as shipments of their raw materials and products were impacted (see Kallanish passim).
Source:Kallanish
