MANUFACTURING ACTIVITIES RESUME

[Anchor Lead]

The truckers’ strike in Korea finally came to an end, gradually returning the manufacturing industry back to normal. Trucks began transporting cars and cement and other backlogged goods.

[Pkg]

Manufactured vehicles are loaded onto the trucks. Some of the trucks feature truckers’ union stickers. Unionized truckers who had been on strike returned to work in the afternoon. It’s quite different from last week, when company employees had to drive the cars to be exported individually to the port. Shipments are expected to return to normal levels gradually. Cement mixer trucks are coming back to work at the cement factory.

[Soundbite] Song Heung-ho(CEO, Cement Mixer Company) : "There was no inventory in the cement silos. But now BCT trucks are supplying cement."

The trucks mix cement to make concrete and deliver it to construction sites. The cement mixer company is flooded with orders.

[Soundbite] Song Heung-ho(CEO, Cement Mixer Company) : "Since the end of the strike, construction companies have been flooding us with orders to meet their deadlines."

Steel mills have started sending out goods in the afternoon. Steel products had been piled on the streets due to lack of storage space. Roughly 300,000 tons of steel products haven’t been transported out of POSCO steel mills. It would take about ten days to ship them all out.

[Soundbite] Lee Yeong-seop(POSCO Publicity Group Leader) : "Shipping resumed. The suspended wire rod and cold-rolled factories will resume normal operations."

Manufacturers experienced delays in shipping and production for eight days. Now that the strike is over, they will soon get back to running their factories full time.