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. Samsung Electronics said its television and appliance businesses had around US$38 million worth of parts and finished products stuck aboard two Hanjin ships, and that it may need to charter at least 16 planes to move the cargo, costing at leastUS $8.8 million, Reuters reported on Wednesday.
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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.
South Korean government officials have also said government-backed creditors are ready to provide a separate 100 billion won in funds if Hanjin Group, the parent firm, provides collateral.
Hanjin Shipping, the world’s seventh-largest container shipping line, filed for court receivership in South Korea on August 31, falling victim to a global trade slump and container overcapacity that have depressed freight rates and piled up debt at the company.
With Hanjin’s future in doubt, carriers have announced they will hike container freight rates by as much as 50 per cent beginning next month, as retailers scramble to secure shipping ahead of the peak year-end holiday season, industry sources said.
The troubled shipper ranks eighth in the world by total capacity of its container ships, according to a French research company. Port charges for a ship with 8,000 containers typically amount to Dollars 35,000 per port call, plus the added cost of hiring terminal operators to handle the many containers.
While Hanjin’s filing was not the only factor (China’s upcoming Golden Week holiday is also contributing), the shipping price from China to the USA west coast rose from $1,100 per container to as much as $1,700, and the price from China to the US east coast from $1,700 to $2,400 last week.
South Korean Finance Minister Yoo Il-ho, center, speaks during a minister-level meeting at the government complex in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2016.
“The Hanjin ships are going to be off the market for the holiday seasons”.
At the moment, USA dockers and transporters are refusing to unload and move cargoes from Hanjin Shipping vessels for the fear of not getting paid for their services.
“The authorization from the South Korean court to pay to service the four ships at USA ports should help to start alleviating the situation, ” says Jonathan Gold, the NRF’s vice president for supply chain.
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As Bloomberg adds, 85 Hanjin ships have been effectively marooned offshore as ports in the U.S., Asia and Europe have turned the company’s ships away. Right now is the busiest time for worldwide shipping as shippers gear up for the holiday season, and that drastically increases the impact of Hanjins bankruptcy. The parties pressing for arrest were World Fuel Services Inc and OceanConnet Marine PTE Ltd, and Hanjin’s attorney said the company expected to work out an arrangement to release the ship next week.
