Hanjin Shipping is still awaiting 60 billion won ($53 million) pledged earlier by its parent company, Hanjin Group.
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After roiling the global supply chain for more than a week since the company applied for court receivership on August 31, Hanjin Shipping won some respite over the weekend after its biggest shareholder, Korean Air Lines Co., agreed to inject $54 million to help pay for handling charges at ports.
The five-year old ship was sold charter-free, meaning it is no longer chartered by Hanjin Shipping, a sale and purchase broker told Reuters.
Meanwhile, Reuters reported yesterday that three ships chartered to Hanjin had been sold and two more vessels are up for sale, kicking off an asset sale.
The vessels, both built in 2013, can carry up to 4,522 20-foot containers.
The South Korean container ship that had been anchored in the Prince Rupert harbour full of cargo for more than a week was unloaded at the Fairview Container Terminal on September 7.
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.
However, it could take “considerable time” for Hanjin to secure the pledged funds from Korean Air because of the often lengthy USA legal process of securing collateral, South Korea’sFinancial Services Commission Chairman Yim Jong-yong said Tuesday.
Ahead of the peak holiday shopping season in the US, the South Korean container carrier Hanjin Shipping is trapped in a $14 billion bankruptcy. Over the weekend, the Evergreen Ever Laden – the largest ship to call the Port of Wilmington – docked as part of the CKYHE Alliance’s AW3 service, which Pyron said connects Asia with the U.S. East Coast via the newly expanded Panama Canal. President Park added that because Hanjin Shipping has not put out sufficient voluntary efforts to normalize its business, creditors suspended their fund support based on the principal of restructuring.
Cargo ships of around 257.8 million DWT, equal to about 14.6% of the global fleet, are due for delivery from now to around 2019 and global seaborne trade growth is just 2.4%, Clarkson data shows. It had chartered a further 78 vessels before its failure.
“If it’s not fixed in the next couple of weeks, I think you’ll see a huge ripple effect across the industry”, said Weston LaBar, executive director for the Harbor Trucking Association in Long Beach, California.
That has delayed grain and oilseed shipment on key global routes, with cargoes carrying pulses from Canada to India running at least 15 days behind schedule.
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Germany’s No1 carrier, which has used mergers to bring down costs and counter the slump that has shaken shipping for the past eight years, does not plan to buy the Asian company nor any of its vessels, now stranded at sea and various ports across the globe.
