United States retailers are concerned over millions of dollars of shipments stranded due to the bankruptcy filing by Hanjin Shipping. “One lesson for shippers is to maintain multiple carrier options and to spread shipments across multiple carriers to avoid being stuck in such situations”.
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Hanjin accounts for 7.8 percent of trans-Pacific trade volume for the USA market.
The country’s second-largest shipping line, Hyundai Merchant Marine, has been linked with bid to acquire some of its rival’s assets, including profit-making vessels and routes and overseas business networks.
In this Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2016, photo, the container ship Hanjin Montevideo is escorted from the Hanjin Terminal in the Port of Long Beach, in Long Beach, Calif. Hanjin has filed for bankruptcy and the ship Hanjin Montevideo is to be anchored inside the breakwater. TVs, cars and sneakers sail about 10 days to reach Los Angeles from Asia, while they could take as many as 30 days to Rotterdam. The bankruptcy of Hanjin has sent shock waves through the container shipping industry.
Pacific Coast Express, a Kent-based trucking company, will have to leave a few containers sit for now, but they have other cargo to move, said Rick Knight, operations manager for the company.
“Retailers’ main concern is that there [are] millions of dollars’ worth of merchandise that needs to be on store shelves that could be impacted by this”, said Jonathan Gold, the group’s vice president for supply chain and customs policy.
During six months of port slowdowns a year ago, the state lost nearly $770 million, according to Eric Schinfeld, president of the Washington Council on International Trade.
The Wall Street Journal quoted Sandra Kennedy, president of the Retail Industry Leaders Association as telling the Department of Commerce and the Federal Maritime Commission that the prospect of harm is “significant and apparent”.
ATI also said Hanjin’s problem had “minor impact” on its operations.
Some shippers won’t feel a major impact or won’t know what that impact will be for some time.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – South Korea’s top ocean shipping company, Hanjin Shipping Co., is in bankruptcy proceedings following years of losses, as its family-dominated controlling conglomerate struggles to adapt to an era of slowing growth.
“The government will swiftly push forth corporate restructuring following the rule that companies must figure out how to survive and find competitiveness on their own while taking responsibility”, Finance Minister Yoo Il-ho said.
But in the meantime, ship running costs can not be covered and dozens of vessels with thousands of containers are tied up in ports, about to be or not being allowed in, with a knock-on effect for customer supply chains and landside container transport and empty container park (ECP) operations.
One of the company’s container ships is due to arrive in Elliott Bay, but Terminal 46 is refusing to accept its cargo.
Efforts to find out how many Filipino seafarers will be affected by Hanjin’s crisis were largely unsuccessful, but a representative of the Maritime Industry Authority (Marina) provided an estimate of “several hundred”.
“The company is internally looking into measures in case our cargo gets stranded while it’s being shipped”, LG said in the e-mail in a response to a Bloomberg query.
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Hanjin Shipping’s bankruptcy has caused immediate ripple effects through the global supply chain with ships and cargo stranded while freight rates are up by 40% on some trades. Trading in its shares were suspended after a 24 percent plunge Tuesday to their lowest level since December 2009.
