Hyundai, Kia to suspend plant operations due to chip shortages

Hyundai Motor Co. will suspend its No. 3 and 5 Ulsan plants for several days next week while its affiliate Kia Corp. will suspend its No. 2 Sohari plant due to semiconductor shortages.

Operations at the No. 5 Ulsan plant, which produces the Tucson sport utility vehicle and the Nexo hydrogen fuel-cell electric vehicle, will be suspended from Monday to Tuesday, while the No. 3 Ulsan plant, which produces the Avante compact and the Venue subcompact, will be suspended on Tuesday.

Hyundai suspended the No. 1 Ulsan plant, which makes the Kona subcompact SUV and the IONIQ 5 all-electric car, from April 7 to 14, and the No. 4 Ulsan plant, which rolls out the Porter pickup truck, from May 6-7 due to electronic parts shortages.

Semiconductor shortages also forced the suspension from April 12 to13 and April 19 to 20 of the Asan plant, which assembles the Sonata and Grandeur sedans.

Hyundai has five plants in Ulsan, one in Asan, and another in Jeonju, on top of its 10 overseas plants, four in China and one each in the US, Russia, the Czech Republic, Turkey, India, and Brazil. The combined manufacturing capacity is 5.5 million vehicles.

Meanwhile, Kia plans to suspend the No. 2 Sohari plant that makes the Stonic subcompact SUV from Monday to Tuesday.

Kia has eight plants in South Korea, three in China, and one each in the US, India, Slovakia, and Mexico. Their overall capacity is 3.84 million units.

Executives from the group expect the chip shortage to impact their second-quarter bottom line.