Business Korea reported that South Korea’s second largest steelmaker Hyundai Steel is considering making semifinished products with molten iron, as it cannot make finished products with molten iron due to a prolonged labor strike. The company's unionists have been staging a guerrilla-type strike for more than a month, making it difficult to put the molten iron from the blast furnaces at Dangjin Works into a hot rolling process. Since October, the labor union walked away in a guerrilla-type strike, wreaking havoc on the operation of the hot rolling mill at Dangjin Works. Hyundai Steel made semifinished products such as pig iron and slabs with the molten iron, and left them in stock. Eventually, as the inventory builds up, the company is considering exporting it as well. If Hyundai Steel goes ahead with the export of semifinished products such as slabs, this will create significant implications for the Korean steel industry If this happens, the Korean industry will have trouble receiving steel products, as Hyundai Steel will also experience production disruptions after POSCO’s Pohang Works. Hyundai Steel’s labor union is at odds with the management over wage and collective bargaining and performance-based pays. As negotiations did not go smoothly, the labor union went on a partial strike at Dangjin Works beginning from the end of September. This strike which initially focused on production lines for thick steel plates, special steel products and wire rods, was extended to hot rolling mills on October 5. As the strike spread to the hot-rolling mills, a shortage of steel products, mainly hot-rolled steel sheets, is getting worse.
Business Korea reported that South Korea’s second largest steelmaker Hyundai Steel is considering making semifinished products with molten iron, as it cannot make finished products with molten iron due to a prolonged labor strike. The company's unionists have been staging a guerrilla-type strike for more than a month, making it difficult to put the molten iron from the blast furnaces at Dangjin Works into a hot rolling process. Since October, the labor union walked away in a guerrilla-type strike, wreaking havoc on the operation of the hot rolling mill at Dangjin Works. Hyundai Steel made semifinished products such as pig iron and slabs with the molten iron, and left them in stock. Eventually, as the inventory builds up, the company is considering exporting it as well. If Hyundai Steel goes ahead with the export of semifinished products such as slabs, this will create significant implications for the Korean steel industry If this happens, the Korean industry will have trouble receiving steel products, as Hyundai Steel will also experience production disruptions after POSCO’s Pohang Works. Hyundai Steel’s labor union is at odds with the management over wage and collective bargaining and performance-based pays. As negotiations did not go smoothly, the labor union went on a partial strike at Dangjin Works beginning from the end of September. This strike which initially focused on production lines for thick steel plates, special steel products and wire rods, was extended to hot rolling mills on October 5. As the strike spread to the hot-rolling mills, a shortage of steel products, mainly hot-rolled steel sheets, is getting worse.
