SEOUL / ULSAN(Reuters) - Defiant South Korean truckers embarked on broader and more aggressive strike action, threatening to severely curtail deliveries of raw materials for semiconductors and petrochemical products.
Entering its fourth day, the strike protesting soaring fuel costs halved production at Hyundai Motor Co’s biggest factory complex on Thursday and has disrupted shipments for a range of companies including steelmaking giant POSCO.
Container traffic at ports has also slowed sharply. At Busan port, which accounts for 80 percent of the country’s container activity, traffic was down to a third of normal levels, a government official said.
At Incheon port, it has fallen to 20 percent of normal levels while at the port for Ulsan, the industrial hub where much of the strike action has occurred, container traffic has been completely suspended since Tuesday.
About 7,500 members, or about 35 percent of the Cargo Truckers Solidarity union in the country, went on strike on Friday, according to South Korea’s transport ministry. The government estimates that about 6 percent of the country’s 420,000 truck drivers belong to a union.
The union has contended that the numbers on strike were much higher than government estimates and that many non-union truckers are also refusing to work.
The strike led to a halving of production at Hyundai Motor’s biggest factory complex in the industrial hub of Ulsan on Thursday. Some 1,000 truckers were protesting in front of the complex on Friday, a Reuters witness said.