Reuters quoted Ilana Volkov, an attorney for Hanjin, as telling the U.S. bankruptcy court that the company had at least $10m authorized by the Korean courts to allow four vessels off the United States to come into port and unload their cargoes.
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According to the sources, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge John K. Sherwood on Friday (U.S. time) granted Hanjin Shipping protection under Chapter 15 of the Bankruptcy Code.
“We’re looking forward to getting these ships unloaded, said Ray Familathe, vice president of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union representing 20,000 dockworkers”.
United Parcel Service Inc (UPS.N) said on Thursday it is seeing a bump in demand for its freight services and is working with customers in Asia to shift goods from Hanjin containers to other ocean freight operators or air freight services.
That was welcome news for some US retailers, who have been scrambling to retrieve goods that have been piling up in ports and on vessels ever since Hanjin filed for bankruptcy protection in South Korea last week.
Creditors of Hanjin Shipping, led by the state-run Korea Development Bank, said earlier it would not extend fresh financial aid to the ailing shipper now under court receivership, calling on the shipper to provide collateral for any funding.
“. All the supply chain partners – the pilots, the tug boat operators, the marine terminals operators, railroads and trucking companies – are saying they want a guarantee they will be paid”, said Tara Mattina, a spokeswoman for The Northwest Seaport Alliance, a partnership between the ports of Seattle and Tacoma, Washington, that manages their cargo terminal leases.
Hanjin has also been granted court protection in Japan, Great Britain and Singapore.
The board of group unit Korean Air, meeting for the third straight day, chose to lend 60 billion won ($55 million) to Hanjin Shipping, two thirds of whose cargo fleet is marooned at sea due to huge debts.
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.
Hanjin Group has pledged to raise a total of 100 billion won ($90 million) in funds to help rescue cargo that is stranded at sea following the failure of Hanjin Shipping, the world’s seventh-largest container carrier. The shipper is also seeking stay orders to prevent creditors from seizing its vessels in other countries, such as Germany and Netherlands.
Meanwhile Reederei NSB, which manages seven Hanjin vessels said one of the ships had been arrested in Vancouver. Hanjin has suggested cargo owners were free to pay cargo handling fees owed by Hanjin, which Samsung Electronics called ransom payments.
Sherwood was told that port terminals were not accepting the routine return of empty Hanjin shipping containers from retailers, forcing stores to spend to store them.
Hanjin’s fiscal troubles have come to a head during peak shipping season for products that will be sold during the holidays, a period in which the retail industry reaps roughly 20% of its sales for the year, according to the National Retail Federation.
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Chapter 15 is meant to allow a company to seek recognition by USA courts of orders issued overseas and to ask US judges to assist in a foreign corporate debt restructuring.
