Large container ships that come within 32.2km of the port complex owe the exchange fees of as much as $1,000, while harbour pilots and tug-boat operators also receive payments for their services to incoming vessels, Mr Louttit said in a telephone interview, without elaborating on the reason for the status of the Hanjin ships.
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Jeong Eun-bo, vice chairman of the Financial Services Commission, floated the idea in an emergency meeting early morning Wednesday, while Hanjin’s board of directors voted to file for court receivership.
Hanjin and shipping companies like it have suffered from a worldwide decline in trade in recent years.
Yang Chang-ho, a professor at Incheon National University, predicted that once shipping operations halt due to those reasons, Hanjin will be in a very hard situation to make a return, even if the court decides on a corporate rehab, not liquidation.
But Hanjin claimed that the latest self-restructuring scheme worth 500 billion won is the most it can do, forcing the creditors to pull the plug and dashing speculations that they may give a more extended grace period for the shipper.
Deputy Prime Minister Yoo Il-ho stated on August 31 that he would do his utmost in order to minimize the repercussions of Hanjin Shipping’s application for receivership. “The firm is highly likely to be kicked out of the global shipping alliance as well”, an industry insider said.
SEOUL, Sept 1 Hyundai Merchant Marine Co Ltd will deploy 13 or more of its ships to Hanjin Shipping’s two exclusive routes before September 7, South Korea’s top financial regulator said on Thursday.
The decision follows South Korea-based Hanjin’s announcement that it has filed for bankruptcy protection. But the percentage of Hanjin’s cargo that makes up the Port of Wilmington’s container storage was not available at the time of this report. A number of other ships that Hanjin Shipping had charted to conduct its business have reportedly suspended operations. Korean Air Lines, Hanjin Shipping’s largest shareholder, ended 1.5 percent higher on Wednesday, outperforming a 0.25 percent drop in the broader market, on investor relief that the flag carrier would not have to support the troubled shipper going forward. Another, the Hanjin Sooho, a larger ship with capacity of more than 14,000 twenty-foot equivalent units, or TEUs, was stopped from entering the Port of Shanghai as creditors sought to have ports either deny entry or impound Hanjin-operated ships.
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A crane handling Hanjin Shipping’s containers remains idle at a port in Busan on September 1, 2016. On Tuesday the airline’s shares were up 6.87 percent and on Wednesday they went up 1.45 percent, largely because the risk that it would be tapped to help Hanjin Shipping had been dispelled.
