Hyundai Motor, which had been scheduled to normalize operations of its domestic plants sequentially starting this week, will face production setbacks again.
The company stopped the operation of the second line of its Ulsan 4 plant, which produces the porters, on Feb. 25, and canceled its scheduled overtime work at the Ulsan 3 plant this weekend.
The spread of the new coronavirus infection has not died down, and in the aftermath, a primary supplier supplying parts to the Ulsan plant has shut down its operations.
According to the industry, Hyundai Motor will suspend the operation of the second line of its Ulsan 4 plant, which produces the porters, for one day. Seojin Industrial Co., Hyundai Motor's primary partner, did not operate the plant until the previous day due to the outbreak of COVID-19 confirmed cases. Seojin is supplying C-frames and decks that apply to porters.
In the aftermath, Hyundai Motor has also revised its plan to operate the line at its fourth plant as well as its first and second plants in Ulsan.
For the Ulsan 2 plant, where popular models are concentrated, production is expected to be only half that of normal operations. For now, the first line plans to mass-produce 65 to 90 percent of normal production from the previous day to Feb. 26.
For the second line, which has 1.5 times higher production capacity than the first line, the operation rate will only be around 30 percent.
Under such circumstances, some analysts point out that if another temporary shutdown of suppliers occurs, the impact on Hyundai Motor's production could be extended.