Hyundai operates five car factories in Ulsan.
Seoul:
An employee of Hyundai Motor tested the new corona virus positive, which led to a shutdown of production in one of its factories in South Korea's south-eastern city of Ulsan, the company said on Friday.
The automaker's shares fell more than 5% according to the news, while the broader market fell 2.6%. The deal marks another setback for Hyundai Motor, which has gradually resumed production at local plants affected by a lack of Chinese parts after the virus broke out.
South Korea has the most infected people outside of China, affecting companies like Samsung and Hyundai. South Korea reported 256 new cases on Friday, bringing the total number of people infected to 2,022.
A union spokesman confirmed that one worker had tested positive, but had no details.
"The company has also self-quarantined colleagues who have come into close contact with the infected employee and taken steps to have them tested for possible infections," said Hyundai Motor in a press release. The company added that it was disinfecting the factory.
Ulsan is less than an hour from Daegu, the epicenter of the Korean outbreak.
Hyundai operates five car factories in Ulsan with an annual production capacity of 1.4 million vehicles, or nearly 30% of Hyundai's global production. Hyundai employs 34,000 people there in the world's largest car complex.
Sport utility vehicles such as Palisade, Tucson, Santa Fe and Genesis GV80 are manufactured in the disused factory.
A factory of Hyundai supplier Seojin Industrial had closed there after the death of a virus-infected worker. It reopened on Wednesday.
South Korean airline Korean Air Lines Co Ltd announced on Friday that it would reduce the number of flights to the U.S. in March.
It is planned to check the temperatures of passengers traveling to the U.S. before boarding, and no one above 37.5 degrees Celsius will be allowed to fly.
It said it would extend these procedures to other routes.
One of his flight attendants who operated the route from Incheon to LA was tested positive for viruses.
(Except for the headline, this story was not edited by NDTV staff and published from a syndicated feed.)
