That’s created a freaky situation on the high seas for 85 Hanjin ships that have been effectively marooned offshore as ports in the U.S., Asia and Europe have turned the company’s ships away.
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Hopes that emergency money to help with unloading of cargo could soon be made available suffered a setback on Thursday when Hanjin’s lead creditor said it would be hard to accept a court request to provide the firm with fresh funds.
The troubled shipper ranks eighth in the world by total capacity of its container ships, according to a French research company. He says the shipping company sought Chapter 15 bankruptcy protection in the USA – and was granted permission by a bankruptcy court, which means it could soon be able to dock its ships here.
Some Hanjin vessels have not be allowed to dock due to uncertainty about the company’s finances. Port officials feared the ships would be unable to pay for tugs, offloading, food or water, or that creditors would attempt to seize ships and cargo.
Hanjin Shipping’s filing will have limited impact on South Korea’s financial industry, the Financial Supervisory Service said in a statement Wednesday.
Samsung Electronics asked a US local court to allow it to unload its goods from container ships owned by troubled shipper Hanjin Shipping Co., industry sources said Friday.
As ShippingWatch has previously reported, the prospect of unpaid bills has encouraged terminal operators in Europe to charge anything from Dollars 190 to USD 1,700 to offload containers to the end users, who are increasingly desperate to get goods from South Korean manufacturers into their stores so that they are ready for the Christmas season.
Christmas shoppers and Korean correspondents were among the likely victims of the collapse of South Korean container shipper Hanjin Shipping. “Korean government-led response teams will be formed in the selected offshore ports to swiftly receive stay orders or guaranteed protection”, Yoo said in Hangzhou, China, where he was attending a Group of 20 summit.
Concerns that the company may not be able to pay docking fees have left 85 cargo ships from Hanjin’s fleet floating in global waters, unable to unload their cargo and even running out of food. The bank’s analysts said Hanjin Shipping’s parent was trying to raise funds to unload the cargo from its ships and retailers still had enough time to back-fill the products stuck on the shipping line’s vessels, making holiday inventory shortfalls unlikely.
The four US -bound ships are the Hanjin Boston, Hanjin Greece, Hanjin Jungil and Hanjin Gdynia.
Hanjin Shipping suffered a net loss for 2011 amid an industrywide slump. The transportation and logistics company said it has about 15,000 containers on lease to Hanjin, equal to $40 million of equipment exposure based on net book value.
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While this is a major delay for shippers with goods on these ships, delays could also trickle down to other shippers whose goods are moving through the ports. There are truckers and trucking companies counting on Hanjin for large bulks of income.
