Shipment Schedules Becoming Increasingly Uncertain
Hyundai Motor Co. will halt some production lines of its Ulsan plant due to a shortage of semiconductors such as airbag control units (ACUs). It will stop Production Line 52 of Ulsan Plant 5 that produces the Tucson, a compact sports utility vehicle (SUV), and the Nexo, a hydrogen electric vehicle (on May 17 and 18), and Ulsan Plant 3 which makes the Avante compact passenger car and the Venue, a compact SUV (May 18).
Kia also suspends the operations of Soha Plant 2 from May 17 to 18 for the same reason. Soha Plant 2 produces the compact SUV Stonic.
Earlier, Hyundai Motor stopped operating Ulsan Plant 1 and Asan Plant in April. The carmaker stopped operating its Ulsan Plant 4, which produces the Porter pickup truck, on May 6 and 7. Kia also stopped most weekend overtime work.
Under these circumstances, the two automakers’ shipment schedules are becoming increasingly uncertain. For the Tucson, which suffers the worst shipment delay, no shipment schedule is set yet. It takes more than five months to ship the Porter, a popular one-ton truck. In the case of Kia, it takes more than four months to ship the Sorento and the K8.