The Chinese authorities called on manufacturers to stop operations until Feb. 9, a week after the end of the Lunar New Year holiday, to keep the new coronavirus from spreading.“If auto parts factories in China resume operations on Feb. 10 or 11, production losses from lack of parts will be limited,” the spokesman said.
Kia, which is 34 percent owned by Hyundai, started reducing output at its plants in Hwaseong and Gwangju, outside of Seoul, for the same reasons, according to the union.Kia has eight domestic plants — two in Gwangmyeong, three in Hwaseong and three in Gwangju — and seven overseas ones — three in China and one each in the U.S., Slovakia, Mexico and India. Their overall capacity reaches 3.84 million units.
In China, the carmakers‘ sales remained weak due to the lingering impact of political tensions between Seoul and Beijing over the deployment of an advanced U.S. missile defense system, called THAAD, in South Korea in 2017. Since emerging out of the Chinese city of Wuhan late last year, the new coronavirus has killed at least 425 and infected 20,438 people in China as of Tuesday and reached 24 countries, as far away as the U.S.South Korea has reported 16 confirmed coronavirus cases as of Tuesday.