Hyundai Motor Co., South Korea's biggest carmaker by sales, said Tuesday it suspended the truck assembly line of its local plant as seven workers at the plant were confirmed to have been infected with the new coronavirus.

Seven employees at Hyundai's Jeonju plant, 243 kilometers south of Seoul, tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday. Some 2,000 workers took coronavirus tests on the same day, Hyundai said.

"The truck assembly line of the Jeonju plant has been suspended from Monday. The company will decide on whether to restart the operation of the truck line on Wednesday depending on test results of the 2,000 employees," a company spokesman said over the phone.

The plant's bus assembly line is in normal operation, he said.

The infections brought the total number of COVID-19 cases at the Jeonju plant to 14. Hyundai mainly produces buses and trucks in Jeonju.  

The maker of the Sonata sedan and the Palisade SUV suspended the production lines of its domestic plants this year to manage inventories amid the virus crisis.

Hyundai has seven domestic plants -- five in Ulsan, one in Asan and one in Jeonju -- and 10 overseas plants -- four in China and one each in the United States, the Czech Republic, Turkey, Russia, India and Brazil. Their combined capacity reaches 5.5 million vehicles. (Yonhap)