Hyundai Cars Crowd U.S. Ports as Car Sales Dip

When the number of coronavirus cases spiked in the United States, hundreds of thousands of people were affected. This prompted several automakers, among other businesses, to halt production temporarily in an effort to curb the spread of the virus.

But such was not the case in South Korea, where the number of cases is significantly lower (just over 10,000) as of writing and factories didn’t have to close shop.

One manufacturer that went on with its production was Hyundai. While its facilities in the U.S. are temporarily closed until further notice, assembly plants in Korea kept rolling out vehicles. Now, there is a backup of their cars in U.S. ports with no one to buy them.

“Hyundai ramped up domestic production to as much as 98% of capacity by late March, not only as the Korean market was recovering from a bad February but also because it bet on demand for Tucson SUVs and other models from U.S. customers, its biggest overseas market outside of China,” a Reuters report said.

In March alone, the automaker shipped 33,990 vehicles to America, according to company data. This is 4.3% more than the previous year.

With car sales dipping in the U.S. in the last couple of months, however, there is little to no movement of these cars from the port. Deliveries to consignees are taking slow while dealers are also suffering from low demand.

Reuters said it could not independently verify how many of the total vehicles shipped by Hyundai and other automakers are now sitting in U.S. ports. And it’s still unclear when this crowding will ease or when these cars will roll out of the docks.