Steel and Petrochemicals Relieved by Logistics Resumption... "Normalization May Take Time"

Interest in the Vote Result on the Withdrawal of the Cargo Solidarity General Strike

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Hyung-gil] The Cargo Solidarity Headquarters of the Public Transport Workers' Union under the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) is conducting a vote among its members on the 9th to decide whether to call off the general strike. Attention is focused on whether the strike, which has lasted over two weeks, will come to an end. The industrial sector, including steel and petrochemical industries that suffered about 3 trillion won in damages due to transport refusal, breathed a sigh of relief, expecting logistics to normalize soon.

At 9 a.m. on the 9th, the Cargo Solidarity began a vote among all members on whether to withdraw the general strike. The voting results are expected to be announced after noon that day. The Cargo Solidarity held a central executive committee meeting the previous day to discuss whether to call off the strike but failed to reach a conclusion and decided to gather the opinions of all members.

However, even if the strike is called off based on the vote results, they plan to continue demanding the government and ruling party to legislate a three-year extension of the Safe Freight Rate System and to expand the scope of items covered by the system.

The industrial sector predicts that even if the Cargo Solidarity ends the strike, it will take considerable time for transportation to return to normal. They plan to maintain an emergency response system this weekend as well, deploying special vehicles to transport urgent cargo.

In particular, the steel and petrochemical industries have somewhat eased logistics pressure due to the government's enforcement of work commencement orders against those refusing to work the previous day. The work commencement order targets about 10,000 people, including approximately 6,000 transport workers in the steel sector and 4,500 in the petrochemical sector. Related transport companies total about 240, combining 155 in steel and 85 in petrochemicals.

The steel industry had already resumed some operations centered on non-union members before the enforcement of the work commencement order, restarting shipments. POSCO expects that from this day, the daily shipment delay of 26,000 tons at the Pohang and Gwangyang steelworks will be reduced by more than half. Hyundai Steel also noted that the situation is gradually improving with some shipment resumption and expects shipments to increase significantly from next week after the weekend.

The petrochemical industry, which had accumulated shipment disruptions totaling 780,000 tons until last week, is hopeful that the crisis of factory shutdowns will be resolved.

A petrochemical company official said, "Due to shipment disruptions, inventory accumulated, leading to a shortage of storage space at factories, causing some companies to halt operations. Once the strike ends and normal work resumes, the halted factories will be able to return to normal operation promptly."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.