South Korea’s government expects a ruling in Hanjin’s favor, said Kim Hyun-jung, an official at the foreign affairs ministry.
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The South Korean government is planning to select major ports on each continent – including Long Beach in the US, Hamburg in Germany, and Singapore – where Hanjin ships that are stranded on the high seas can move to unload their cargo. Of Hanjin Shipping’s 71 containership routes, North American region makes up 28 percent. HPR’s Bill Dorman has more in today’s Asia Minute. Since Hanjin’s bankruptcy protection filing, dozens of ships carrying more than half a million cargo containers have been denied access to ports around the world because of uncertainty about who would pay docking fees, container storage and unloading bills.
But they added, “There may be some exposure for branded goods that the department stores purchase as they are unsure at this point which of their vendors may use Hanjin”.
The move prevents USA creditors from taking actions against the company’s ships and other assets.
The industry worldwide has been forced to sell assets, cut jobs and idle some operations to bolster finances as the slowdown coupled with overcapacity eroded freight rates.
“This will probably take months to resolve”, Cordero said. Bookings for the ship have reached more than 90 percent, of which the two electronics makers accounted for about 60 percent, according to Hyundai Merchant.
Attorneys for the South Korea based- Hanjin Shipping said the company got approval from the bankruptcy court in its home country to spend roughly $10 million to unload cargo from four ships that were headed to ports in the US, according to an investors update from Teresa Lii, a legal analyst at Reorg Research.
During a hearing Friday morning, Hanjin 117930, +1.15% bankruptcy lawyer Ilana Volkov told Judge John Sherwood of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Newark, N.J., that the company now has the funding and legal permission necessary to offload containers bound for U.S. ports.
Lenders to South Korea’s largest container-shipping company last week rejected a restructuring proposal saying it was insufficient to tide over a cash shortage.
Hanjin’s woes show the container-shipping industry is in bad health, limping from one exigency to another since the 2008 global financial crisis brought trading to its knees. The company handles an estimated 7.8% of trans-Pacific freight destined for the U.S.
The financial concerns have left terminal operators and suppliers uneasy about cooperating with Hanjin ships.
Baker pointed to the West Coast port labor strikes in 2014 as evidence of the cost of a possible disruption, albeit less severe.
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“There are innumerable parties that can arrest and levy on the debtor’s property in the United States”, the company said in its Sept 2 request.
