The measure is aimed at “minimizing the cases where Hanjin Shipping’s vessels are being seized in foreign countries”, South Korea’s government said in a statement jointly released by several ministries including the FSC.
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Hanjin Shipping accounted for about 4% of container cargo imported to the Port of Los Angeles and 12% of container cargo to the Port of Long Beach during the first six months of the year, according to Datamyne, which tracks import-export transactions in the Americas.
The company also filed for bankruptcy protection in the US Friday to protect its vessels from being seized by creditors, the Wall Street Journal reported.
BBC also reports that Parent company Hanjin Group on Tuesday also said it would inject $90m in fresh funds to resolve the disruptions to the cargo transport now stuck at sea.
Hanjin Shipping has a total of 457 contractors here and their combined outstanding receivables reach 64 billion won (US$57 million).
Hanjin, the world’s seventh largest ocean shipper, is part of the Seoul-based Hanjin Group, a huge, family-dominated conglomerate, or chaebol, that also includes Korean Air.
South Korea will direct container carriers of Hanjin Shipping Co. put under court receivership to selected offshore ports where safe freight unloading can be guaranteed without any fear of vessel seizures, a government task force on the Hanjin-related logistics crisis said Monday.
Although expectations that Hanjin Shipping will be able to survive are low, the stock surged 30 percent on Tuesday, the daily limit, as investors made speculative bets on a stock that hit an all-time low on Monday. None of his customers had cargo on Hanjin ships. If recognized by the USA court, the chapter 15 filing will block creditors in the US from seizing the company’s assets or launching other legal actions while its foreign bankruptcy proceedings are under way.
Hanjin Shipping is one of the largest ocean shippers in the world, with a large terminal in Long Beach.
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Smaller operators like Hanjin, which with 618,133 TEUs (Twenty-foot Equivalent Units) of container capacity is in the lower tier of the top 10 shippers, can not muster the scale needed to get by. Should Hyundai, which is undergoing its own debt restructuring, go ahead with the purchase of Hanjin assets or another early liquidation take place, or if Hanjin’s rehabilitation plan is accepted before the November deadline, the snarls that are unsettling the supply chains it services may be smoothed sooner.
