A lawyer for Hanjin Shipping Co. said Friday that a South Korean court has authorized the company to pay to unload US -bound ships carrying cargo that has been stranded at sea since the shipping giant filed for bankruptcy last week.
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Korean Air owns 33.2% of Hanjin and is expected to contribute a portion of the aid.
Samsung on Thursday asked a USA judge to allow the South Korean company to pay cargo handlers to remove its goods from Hanjin Shipping vessels stationed near US ports. “We want to call these ports and say, please accept our ships and we want to pay for the services to work the ships”.
Some Hanjin rivals have announced container freight rate hikes of as much as 50 percent beginning in October. Sherwood had given provisional protection on September 6 and his latest ruling broadened that legal shield and extended it.
Some have calculated that the funding package won’t be enough: South Korea’s Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries estimates Hanjin Shipping needs more than 600 billion won to cover unpaid costs like fuel, including about 100 billion won immediately for payments such as to port operators to unload cargo from stranded ships.
The order was granted by US Bankruptcy Judge John Sherwood and would allow the Hanjin vessels to dock without fear of arrest by creditors.
Hanjin’s collapse has caused havoc in global trade networks and a surge in freight rates, as more than half of the company’s 141 ships have been blocked from docking at ports.
Separately, Hyundai Merchant Marine Co. previously said it would deploy nine vessels to Europe and four to the US, as well as form an alliance with three other South Korean lines to offer services to Southeast Asia to minimize disruptions in the region.
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. At the same time, South Korea’s ruling Saenuri Party asked the government to offer about 100 billion won in low-interest loans to the shipping line if Hanjin Group provides collateral, in what is effectively a government-funded loan.
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 company has sought protection from courts around the world as creditors line up.
The filing came after lenders led by Korea Development Bank on August 30 rejected a restructuring proposal by the Seoul-based company, which had been trying to reschedule debt under a voluntary creditor-led program since May.
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The tech giant said it may have to charter at least 16 planes to move the goods if the cargo can not be unloaded immediately, costing it at least US$8.8 million.
