The government will likely expand its back-to-work order on unionized cargo truckers beyond the cement industry as early as on Thursday. 

The finance ministry said on Wednesday members of a ministerial meeting presided over by finance minister Choo Kyung-ho earlier in the day formed a consensus on the need to invoke a return-to-work order in steel and petrochemical fields. 

The ministry said an interim Cabinet meeting will be held on Thursday to discuss the related matters. 

According to the transport ministry, shipments of steel products dwindled to 47 percent of the daily average as of Tuesday amid a protracted walkout by Cargo Truckers Solidarity, which began a fortnight ago. The shipments in the petrochemical industry also shrank to five percent of normal levels.  

The government invoked a return-to-work order, the first such directive since the system was introduced in 2004, to cement truckers on November 29 after the decision was approved at a Cabinet meeting earlier in the day.