Daily Management Review

Hyundai Motor suspends production at Ulsan plant after worker tests positive for coronavirus


02/28/2020


Hyundai’s Ulsan factory’s worker fall victim of corona virus. The company suspends the operation and is busy disinfecting the facility.



On Friday, in a statement, Hyundai Motor stated, production at one of its factories in the southeastern city of Ulsan has been suspended following one of its workers being tested positive for China’s coronavirus.
 
With the news reaching the market, Hyundai Motor’s shares dropped more than 5% in comparison to the wider market which was down by 2.6%. The developments is a fresh setback to Hyundai Motor which has gradually resumed production at local plants hit by a Chinese parts shortage in the wake of the virus outbreak.
 
South Korea is the most coronavirus infected country outside China.
 
On Friday, South Korea reported 256 new cases, bringing the total number of infected to 2,022.
A spokesman for Hyundai Motor confirmed that a worker had tested positive but declined to provide any more details.
 
“The company has also placed colleagues who came in close contact with the infected employee in self-quarantine and taken steps to have them tested for possible infection,” said Hyundai Motor in a news release.
 
Hyundai Motor said it was disinfecting the factory.
 
Incidentally, Ulsan is less than an hour away from Daegu, the epicenter of the outbreak in South Korea.
Hyundai has five car factories in Ulsan, which has an annual production capacity of 1.4 million vehicles, equivalent to nearly 30% of Hyundai’s global production.
 
Hyundai employs 34,000 workers there in the world’s biggest car complex.
 
Hyundai Motor’s plant that was shutdown produces sport utility vehicles including Santa Fe, Palisade,  Genesis GV80 and Tucson.
 
A factory run by Seojin Industrial, a Hyundai supplier, had been closed following the death of an coronavirus infected worker there, but it reopened on Wednesday.


References:
reuters.com