South Korea truckers resume work once the strike is over; the stock market rises

• The truckers’ union and the transport ministry decided late on Tuesday to prolong the minimum pay system for drivers
• After strikers withdrew from its Ulsan production base, Korea Zinc (010130.KS) declared that its sulfuric acid shipments, a crucial raw material for semiconductors, are once again on schedule.
• after a late-night tentative deal between the union and the transport ministry, which put an end to a statewide strike that crippled ports and industrial hubs

After a late-night tentative deal between the union and the transport ministry, which put an end to a statewide strike that crippled ports and industrial hubs, South Korea’s unionized truckers returned to the roads on Wednesday.

The truckers’ union and the transport ministry decided late on Tuesday to prolong the minimum pay system for drivers and to keep talking about extending the minimum pay guarantee to cover more goods. Additionally, the transport ministry will consider increasing fuel subsidies.

After the eight-day strike delayed cargo shipments of everything from cars to cement and alcohol, costing South Korea more than $1.2 billion in missed output and unfulfilled deliveries, shares in several affected industries increased in early trading.

In reference to the procedure the transport ministry must go through to implement the agreement, Park Jung-hoon, an official of the union’s Busan chapter, said, “So the strike has been called off until our demands are passed in parliament.”

“All unionised truckers at the Busan port are anticipated to report for duty in the following two to three days after taking some time off. Some shippers may be seeking revenge; in such circumstances, we shall take stern action.”

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The walkout had been a litmus test for President Yoon Suk-new yeol’s administration and had further strained already-disrupted global supply lines caused by China’s COVID-19 limitations and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Hanil Cement (300720.KS) shares increased as much as 7% in early trading, while shares of Hyundai Motor (005380.KS) increased by 4%.

Hyundai Motor announced in a statement that “production has been normalised at our Ulsan Plant and we will continue to minimise customer inconvenience from the production disruption.”

The walkout, according to Yoo Ji-woong, an analyst at Daol Securities, affected around 5,000 vehicles each for Hyundai and Kia (000270.KS), but he claimed there were enough opportunities for overtime to make up for missed output in June.

Due to a shortage of space to keep unshipped goods, steelmaker POSCO, a division of POSCO Holdings (005490.KS), ceased operations at some factories on Monday. However, a representative said the company still intends to adjust maintenance to resume production at the original scheduled output.

The representative continued, “We intend to restart our overland delivery of steel products out of Pohang and Gwangyang steel factories at 1 p.m. (0400 GMT) on Wednesday.

After strikers withdrew from its Ulsan production base, Korea Zinc (010130.KS) declared that its sulfuric acid shipments, a crucial raw material for semiconductors, are once again on schedule.

An official at SK Plasma, which uses plasma to create pharmaceuticals, reported that on Wednesday, some shipments of plasma supplies that had been held up in Busan port were released.

Byungwook Kim and Heekyong Yang reported; Choonsik Yoo and Jihoon Lee contributed more information; Joyce Lee wrote the article; Lincoln Feast edited it.

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