The move came hours after a US bankruptcy judge said he would approve Hanjin Shipping Co.’s provisional protection from creditors so vessels could dock and unload products, and retailers could begin selling those products in stores.
Advertisement
A third ship, the Hanjin Greece, was off the shore of Mexico, where it could avoid US anti-pollution regulations that require use of low-sulfur fuel, the tracking group said.
A U.S. judge has signed an order granting Hanjin Shipping provisional protection from its creditors allowing some of its vessels to come into United States ports to unload their cargoes.
Volkov said at least $10 million was authorized by a Korean court to begin servicing the four ships.
“The objective is to get ships into port”, said Judge John Sherwood of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Newark, New Jersey, who granted Hanjin the provisional protection from creditors, which also prevented any more ships from being seized.
The U.S. relief was granted over an objection from two terminal operators that warned of docking disasters, with one citing the fear that Hanjin ships would be stuck in its berths, unable to afford the fuel needed to depart.
Singapore-based crop shipper Agrocorp International said that DP World, the terminal operator at Port of Vancouver, last week held 24 containers – or 600 tonnes – of its Canadian lentils that were bound for India and Bangladesh, demanding a release fee of US$450 per container.
About US$14 billion (S$19 billion) worth of cargo was stranded by the collapse of the seventh-largest container carrier in the world.
The money is part of 100 billion won that Hanjin Group, which controls Korean Air, said September 6 that it would provide to help ease the supply-chain disruptions.
Though the judge’s order allowed container ships operated by Hanjin to dock in US ports without interference from creditors, it was unclear if the company could afford to pay for services needed to offload the ships.
As ships await at sea, anchored off various ports from Long Beach, California, Mexico to Panama City, problems for the financially-strapped company mount as fuel suppliers also demand payment and provisions run low on the ships.
As of Thursday afternoon, two Hanjin ships were near the Port of Long Beach, according to the Marine Exchange of Southern California, which tracks cargo ship traffic.
Jang said the court granted the order after it was shown the bailout plan by Hanjin Group.
Hanjin Shipping Co.’s container boxes are stacked five high at Busan port in Gyeongsang Province on September 9, 2016.
Hanjin’s collapse last week came during the peak shipping period ahead of the year-end holiday season, stranding cargo for the likes of HP Inc and Samsung.
Advertisement
“Hanjin should not significantly affect volume for the month since alternative arrangements to unload those containers or shift cargo elsewhere should be dealt with by the time the numbers are tallied”, NRF Vice President for Supply Chain and Customs Policy Jonathan Gold said.
