A Korean bankruptcy court approved the release of $10 million in funding to unload four Hanjin Shipping Co. chartered ships that have been sitting off the US coast, including at least two off the coast of Southern California, lawyers for Hanjin said.
Advertisement
As of late Friday, 92 of 141 ships being operated by the world’s seventh largest shipping firm were stranded at sea.
A Hanjin Shipping customer and a port terminal operator are asking a federal bankruptcy court to modify an order issued by the court earlier this week in the now insolvent South Korean ocean carrier’s Chapter 15 case.
“We do not want to hold on to this cargo”, she said. Hanjin has identified 14 USA -bound ships in bankruptcy filings, including the Hanjin Greece and two other vessels now near the Southern California coast.
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.
“The money is in place to pay for [unloading] as far as I can tell”, Krieger said.
The freight on the 92 ships is reportedly worth $14 billion, the Chosun Ilbo daily said.
The Charleston port allowed trucking companies to pick up imported Hanjin containers and also allowed exporters to “restuff” them into containers from other carriers, said Clinton Eisenhauer, senior vice president of external affairs for the South Carolina Ports Authority.
“We decided we didn’t want to make a bad situation worse”, Eisenhauer said.
South Korea’s Hanjin had asked U.S. Bankruptcy Judge John Sherwood to issue an order to prevent creditors from seizing Hanjin ships or property, and to allow cargo owners to make arrangements to retrieve goods stranded in warehouses.
“For some companies it may take them weeks to get those appointments in place”, Sider said, adding that shippers risk missing deliveries in time for the holiday season.
The Hanjin Greece, which had recently been parked near the Mexican border after running low on low-sulfur fuel, is now set to dock at dawn Saturday morning at the Port of Long Beach’s Total Terminals International, where Hanjin owns a majority stake.
Some Hanjin rivals have announced container freight rate hikes of as much as 50 percent beginning in October.
Advertisement
Hanjin Group Chairman Cho Yang-ho has said publicly that he would provide 40 billion won from his own assets and that the remainder would come from the group of companies that comprise Hanjin’s parent, which includes, the country’s biggest airline, Korean Air. But it urged the court in a filing not to protect Hanjin vessels from seizure without also considering the rights of suppliers.
