The Hyundai Metaplant electric vehicle manufacturing facility in Ellabell, Ga. (Elijah Nouvelage/Bloomberg)
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Construction work on the Georgia battery plant that was raided by U.S. immigration authorities is being delayed as the companies involved grapple with worker shortages.
Hyundai Motor Co. CEO José Muñoz said in an interview Sept. 11 that the work was being set back by two to three months. The South Korean car manufacturer is building the plant with battery maker LG Energy Solution Ltd.
“This is going to give us minimum two to three months delay, because now all these people want to get back,” he said. “Then you need to see how can you fill those positions. And for the most part, those people are not in the U.S.”
The comments come after a raid at the Georgia battery plant site — which the South Korean car manufacturer runs with LG Energy Solution Ltd. — saw federal agents detain 475 workers, the majority of them South Korean. The shock operation has reverberated across the industry, while images of detainees shackled at the wrists, waist and ankles have strained diplomatic ties between Seoul and Washington.
A Korean Air chartered plane takes off to bring back workers detained in an immigration raid in Georgia, at Incheon International Airport on Sept. 10. (Yonhap via AP)
LG said in a statement that it’s “committed to our projects in the U.S. and will continue to navigate the circumstances with the aim to continue necessary investments and business.”
Efforts to repatriate workers are moving forward and the chartered plane bringing them back is expected to depart the U.S. on Sept. 11 and arrive in Korea on Sept. 12.
But the economic ramifications are potentially just beginning.
The operation has cast doubt over billions of dollars of South Korean companies’ future investment in the U.S. Construction has been disrupted at multiple LG Energy Solution sites across the U.S., while some Korean staff are balking at assignments over fears of being caught in similar crackdowns.
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