SEOUL, June 9 Reuters Thousands of South Korean truckers went on strike for a third day on Thursday to protest the sharp surge in fuel costs, disrupting production, slowing activity at ports and posing new risks to a strained global supply chain.

Presenting new President Yoon Sukyeol with one of his first big economic challenges, about 7,200 members or roughly 30 of the Cargo Truckers Solidarity union were on strike, the country39;s transport ministry said.

A union official said the number of participating members was much higher and they were also joined by nonunion truckers.

South Korean steelmaker POSCO said it had been unable to ship about 35,000 tonnes of steel products from two plants daily since the strike began equivalent to roughly a third of its daily shipments from those plants.

A South Korean auto industry group called the strike extremely selfish, saying it would further pressure the sector which has been hurt by the global chip shortage.

Hyundai Motor Co has seen some disruption to production at plants in Ulsan as truck drivers refuse to deliver components, Yonhap news agency reported. Hyundai Motor declined to comment on the matter.

A transport ministry official said there had been drops in shipments of some products including steel and cement. But the country was not yet seeing a significant disruption in logistics and the government was meeting with relevant industry officials to prevent such a situation.

An official with the Korean Shippers39;…