Posco, South Korea’s largest steelmaker, has stopped making some products. Due to the long strike by truck drivers in the country, the company is struggling with a shortage of materials.
Other major South Korean exporters such as Hyundai, Kia and Samsung are also affected by the strike that is increasingly disrupting global supply chains. Deliveries to, for example, Rotterdam can also be delayed.
While Posco is trying to minimize the impact of the strike, the company may need to cut production further. According to a spokeswoman, that depends on the size and duration of the strike. The company currently stacks products in parking lots and roads of its factories.
Thousands of drivers’ strikes in South Korea enter their seventh day. With the strike, the truckers want to pressure the government not to abolish the current rules that guarantee the minimum wage for truckers because of rising fuel prices. The three-year wage rule, which was introduced in 2020, will expire this year. Talks between the union and the government have so far been unsuccessful.
The strike has suspended or delayed deliveries of cars, fuels, steel and semiconductor materials. South Korea is the largest exporter of memory chips and home to some of the largest car manufacturers in the world. The strike threatens to worsen disruptions in global supply chains following the lockdowns in China and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
According to data from the Ministry of Lands, Infrastructure and Transport, the daily volume of containers transported to and from the country’s 12 ports fell 87 percent on Sunday compared to the May average. Inbound and outbound volumes in Busan, the world’s seventh busiest port, were less than a fifth of their usual amount. Steel and cement are among the hardest hit industries to date.