Even Grandeur, the 1st place in sole sales, was braked… Hyundai’s Blade Thunderbolt

Hyundai Motor Company has decided to temporarily close the Ulsan Plant 1 and the Asan Plant due to the lack of supply of semiconductors for vehicles. The Asan Plant is a place that produces the Grandeur, the number one sedan in Korea, and there is a concern about disruption in delivery of some vehicles due to the shutdown of the plant.

According to the industry on the 5th, Hyundai Motor Company’s Asan Plant delivered a plan to close its business on the 7th to 9th and half the operation from the 12th to 15th. This is due to the lack of automotive semiconductors. It is reported that there is a problem with the supply and demand of the’Power Control Unit (PCU)’ that controls the overall vehicle electrical system. These parts are mainly produced by NXP in the Netherlands, Renesas in Japan, TI in the US, and NVIDIA.

The shortage is estimated to be about 7,000 units. The Asan Plant is preparing a countermeasure by reducing the production of 5,000 units from business and by 50% for 2000 units. Considering that the domestic sales of Granger (9217 units) and Sonata (6233 units) reached a total of 15,450 units last month, production disruption is caused by about half of the sales volume per month.

The union, however, informed the management of its opposition, saying, “Shutdown is absolutely unacceptable.” This is because wage losses are expected to be inevitable due to the closure and production cuts. An industry insider said, “Considering the sales volume of Grandeur, it is the company that wants to run more factories,” said an industry official.

The suspension of Hyundai Motor’s Ulsan plant is an atmosphere that spreads from the 1st plant to the 3rd plant. Ulsan Plant 3 decided not to carry out extra work on the 10th. This is due to the lack of automotive semiconductors supplied by Renesas. Renesas stopped production after a big fire at the factory last month. Local observations are that it will take at least 1 to 3 months to resume production.

Ulsan Plant 3 acquired parts to replace Buryaburya Renesas semiconductors, tested them, and finally secured production volume this week. The supply and demand for next week is uncertain. The industry is concerned about the possibility that the suspension of overtime work will lead to production cuts. Ulsan Plant 3 is mainly producing Avante.

There are also concerns that the subsequent production disruption is likely to weaken the surviving domestic sales. GM Korea, which has been reducing production by 50% since February, has already reduced its sales. Until last month this year, it has sold 11,353 units in Korea, a decrease of 8.9% compared to the same period last year. This is because sales of Malibu and Trax, which are suffering from production disruptions, have declined.

Hyundai Motor Company and Kia sold 18,5413 and 1375 units, respectively, in Korea in the first quarter, up 16.6% and 11.4% compared to the same period last year, but it is unsafe.

Previously, Hyundai Motor Company’s Ulsan Plant 1 was scheduled to stop operating on the 7th to 14th. This is because the image sensor to be mounted in the small sports utility vehicle (SUV) Kona was not supplied in time, and the supply of driving motors for the next-generation electric vehicle Ionic 5 was also disrupted. Kia’s Hwaseong plant, which produces Sorento and K8, has decided not to carry out extra work in April.

Reporter Il-gyu Kim/Byeong-wook Do [email protected]

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