THOUSANDS of south Korean harbour truckers have gone on strike, threatening to slow the exports in protest over soaring fuel prices, reports Bloomberg.
The government estimates that six per cent of the country's 420,000 truck drivers belong to a union.
The International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) said the Korean Public Service and Transport Workers' Union is holding protests at 16 locations across the country.
Busan Port Authority, the world's seventh biggest container port, said an emergency response team had been in place since June 6, and it has readied extra storage space outside the port, Reuters reports.
The port's container occupancy rate is currently 76.3 per cent, up from 73.9 per cent two days before.
Transport has slowed or stopped to the Busan New Port, Pyeongtaek Port and Uiwang container depot in Gyeonggi province, the ITF said.
'The impact of the strike is already being felt at ports, petrochemical complexes, and other logistics hubs,' the ITF said in the statement.
Truckers are protesting the planned removal of a government scheme to calculate minimum wages based on operating costs, the ITF said. That is likely to erode the earnings of those who are driving bulk-cement and container trucks amid soaring fuel prices.
The strikes come at a time when the global supply chain is struggling to recover from lockdowns in China's cities and Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
While not all of the nation's drivers are taking part in the protests, the rallies threaten to slow down South Korea's exports of everything from steel to plastics and consumer goods if they go on for weeks, local media said.
Presenting South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol with one of his first big economic challenges, about 7,200 members or roughly 30 per cent of the Cargo Truckers Solidarity union are on strike.
A union official said the number of participating members was much higher and they were also joined by non-union truckers.
A test of which parts of South Korean society will have to shoulder the biggest portion of sky-high fuel costs, the strike, if prolonged, holds the potential to severely snarl industrial activity in the world's fourth largest economy.
Among companies feeling the pain was steelmaking giant POSCO which has been unable to ship about 35,000 tons of steel products from two plants daily since the strike began - equivalent to roughly a third of its daily shipments from those plants.
Automakers too were suffering. The union said it had asked both union members and non-union truckers not to make deliveries to Hyundai Motor Company's plants in Ulsan but were not blocking the gates. Hyundai said some trucks were entering the plants.
Kia Motors employees at its Gwangju plant were using recently assembled cars to make deliveries, local media reported. Its parent company Hyundai Motor Group declined to comment.
SeaNews Turkey
The government estimates that six per cent of the country's 420,000 truck drivers belong to a union.
The International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) said the Korean Public Service and Transport Workers' Union is holding protests at 16 locations across the country.
Busan Port Authority, the world's seventh biggest container port, said an emergency response team had been in place since June 6, and it has readied extra storage space outside the port, Reuters reports.
The port's container occupancy rate is currently 76.3 per cent, up from 73.9 per cent two days before.
Transport has slowed or stopped to the Busan New Port, Pyeongtaek Port and Uiwang container depot in Gyeonggi province, the ITF said.
'The impact of the strike is already being felt at ports, petrochemical complexes, and other logistics hubs,' the ITF said in the statement.
Truckers are protesting the planned removal of a government scheme to calculate minimum wages based on operating costs, the ITF said. That is likely to erode the earnings of those who are driving bulk-cement and container trucks amid soaring fuel prices.
The strikes come at a time when the global supply chain is struggling to recover from lockdowns in China's cities and Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
While not all of the nation's drivers are taking part in the protests, the rallies threaten to slow down South Korea's exports of everything from steel to plastics and consumer goods if they go on for weeks, local media said.
Presenting South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol with one of his first big economic challenges, about 7,200 members or roughly 30 per cent of the Cargo Truckers Solidarity union are on strike.
A union official said the number of participating members was much higher and they were also joined by non-union truckers.
A test of which parts of South Korean society will have to shoulder the biggest portion of sky-high fuel costs, the strike, if prolonged, holds the potential to severely snarl industrial activity in the world's fourth largest economy.
Among companies feeling the pain was steelmaking giant POSCO which has been unable to ship about 35,000 tons of steel products from two plants daily since the strike began - equivalent to roughly a third of its daily shipments from those plants.
Automakers too were suffering. The union said it had asked both union members and non-union truckers not to make deliveries to Hyundai Motor Company's plants in Ulsan but were not blocking the gates. Hyundai said some trucks were entering the plants.
Kia Motors employees at its Gwangju plant were using recently assembled cars to make deliveries, local media reported. Its parent company Hyundai Motor Group declined to comment.
SeaNews Turkey
