One ship, Hanjin Greece, managed to dock in Long Beach, California, over the weekend, and had its cargo unloaded, but it there was no timeline for other vessels at ports globally, Reuters reported Monday. “We heard that some ports have refused Hanjin’s ships or seized its ships”, the director of an import/export company said, adding that the company has dozens of containers of goods on the way from and to Vietnam.
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A South Korean court authorized Hanjin Shipping Company, which declared bankruptcy earlier this month, to unload four container ships in United States ports.
Other operators in Asia now are working with principals to move their export cargo from Hanjin to other ocean freight operators or air freight services.
Korean Air Lines, the biggest shareholder of Hanjin Shipping, said it will provide 60 billion won (S$74 million) in funds as part of efforts to ease a supply-chain disruption after South Korea’s largest container line filed for court protection.
Two other container ships, the Hanjin Montevideo and Hanjin Boston, were still waiting offshore. Media reports over the weekend said that shareholder Korean Air Lines agreed to provide around $54 million of that amount, in exchange for collateral in the form of Hanjin’s stake in a terminal at Port of Long Beach.
According to BBC, right after filing for bankruptcy, Hanjin ship was stuck at sea with 540,000 containers and many sailors. Shipping companies share a limited supply of chassis, and many of Hanjin’s empty containers are sitting on idle ones.
“In order to end the Hanjin Shipping trouble, it has to first deal with accounts payable to oil companies, unloading costs for terminal companies and railroad shipping expense”, the US-based lawyer Kim Jin-jeong told a local business newspaper Chosun Biz. Given the excess capacity in the shipping industry, this rise in price is expected to taper off in the next 30 to 45 days as rival shippers absorb the Hanjin capacity.
Another trade group, the Retail Industry Leaders Association, wrote a letter to the U.S. Department of Commerce and the Federal Maritime Commission asking the federal government to step in to help smooth out the Hanjin situation and expressing hope that the South Korean government will also work to clarify and speed up bankruptcy proceedings. Two suppliers claim that Hanjin owes them about $775,000 for fuel in the ship’s tanks.
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.
The China Containerized Freight Index, a measure of the average cost to ship containers from China to ports around the world, fell to its all-time low in April. A third ship remained at anchor Monday.
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“We’re already starting to run out of some colors and some sizes”, Rasheed said, noting Hanjin’s collapse comes as USA retailers prepare for the all-important holiday shopping season.
