SK Hynix Chinese plant suspends operation due to COVID-19 case

A South Korean worker who was dispatched to SK Hynix’s plant in Chongqing, China tested positive for COVID-19, which resulted in the suspension of the Chinese plant’s operation. The Chongqing city government ordered COVID-19 testing for all 2,700 employees working at the plant.

According to China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency and sources in the South Korean business community on Sunday, an SK Hynix employee tested positive when he took COVID-19 test upon arrival on Sunday at Incheon International Airport after completing his 18-month secondment to China. Right after the man was confirmed as a COVID-19 patient, the city of Chongqing conducted epidemiological survey at, restricted access to, and decontaminated the SK Hynix plant where the Korean national worked.

“The Chongqing city government and SK Hynix suspect that the employee is an asymptomatic case without displaying notable symptoms,” a South Korea business community source said. “The City of Chongqing also suspended the operation of the hotel where the SK employee stayed, and started PCR testing in people who stayed at the hotel since November 25.

SK Hynix’s Chongqing plant is a facility for late-state processing including semiconductor packaging. Generally, if a semiconductor factory stops operation even momentarily due to power outage, it takes days before recovering production lines, and can cause massive damage. The chip packaging plant where operation has been suspended this time will likely resume operation as soon as the city authority completes quarantine measures. However, it is unknown at this point in time when the plant will actually resume operation, and the company will inevitably face disruptions in production if the plant inevitably remains suspended for an extended period of time.

“We will fully cooperate with the Chinese government, and do our best to resume operation as soon as possible,” SK Hynix said Sunday.


Dong-Il Seo dong@donga.com