Shipyards, TV plants to shut down as typhoon lands on Korea

The world’s two largest shipbuilders Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co., decided to shut down their main shipyards for a full or half-day on Tuesday, according to company officials, as a super typhoon is expected to make landfall on South Korea.

LG Electronics Inc., the world’s top home appliances maker, will follow suit. It will close its production lines in Gumi for all of Tuesday and those in Changwon in the morning. Those facilities produce TVs, washers and other electronics goods, located about 240 km and 500 km southeast of Seoul.

Typhoon Hinnamnor is moving toward southeastern Korea, home to the country's major exporters of ships, automobiles and petrochemical products. It is forecast to be the strongest storm in two decades.

“Shipyards located in the southeastern regions all cannot help but shut down,” one of the industry officials said.

Hyundai Heavy has moved nine vessels either in their final stage of construction or in the testing phase to its dockyards in the west coast. Daewoo Shipbuilding relocated six vessels and offshore cranes to the west coast. Samsung Heavy moved some of its ships to other ports.

On Monday, Chief Executive of holding company HD Hyundai Co. Kwon Oh-Gap came down to its Ulsan shipyard, 400 km southeast of Seoul and inspected its facilities.

This time around, CEOs of manufacturing companies are on higher alert to possible damage caused by heavy rains than ever before. The Serious Accidents Punishment Act, which came into force in January, holds top executives liable for workplace accidents.

FROM STEEL TO CAR AND PETROCHEMICAL EXPORTERS

POSCO Co. may temporarily halt some processing lines at its steel mill in Pohang, another southeastern port city, on Tuesday.

“If the plant comes under the direct influence of the typhoon, we will stop peak time operations,” said a POSCO official.

Hyundai Motor has moved 5,000 units of cars in low-lying areas, ready to be loaded, to safe places. In case of strong winds, it has secured 8,500 sandbags and put 120 workers on standby to move the remaining vehicles.

Among petrochemical companies, SK Innovation Co. and S-Oil Corp. have banned the entry of crude oil and product carriers into the port of Ulsan since last Thursday. Both companies operate plants in Ulsan.

Construction companies postponed some projects until the typhoon passes. The country’s three telecoms and internet service providers --  SK Telecom Co., KT Corp. and LG Uplus Corp. -- shifted to 24-hour emergency mode.

Last month, record rainfalls swept through the country for two and a half days, marking the worst floods hitting the Seoul metropolitan area in over 100 years. The heavy rains claimed 14 lives and left six people missing. 

Write to Il-Gue Kim, Ik-Hwan Kim and Han-Gyeol Seon at black0419@hankyung.com
Yeonhee Kim edited this article