Hanjin Shipping files for court receivership

Hyundai Merchant Marine said it will start on September 8 deploying four ships capable of carrying 4,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) each, on the route between Busan, South Korea, and Los Angeles.

Hopefully the bankruptcy of Hanjin will be a wake up call to all in the sector that it can not continue doing business in the way that it has for the last two decades, or more major companies will fail leaving shippers high and dry.

“There is a loss of faith among customers”.

“It is very unlikely that we would see a non-CKYHE carrier step up to that particular plate, as the major beneficiaries of such a saving grace would be Hanjin’s partners, and they themselves are likely not in a mood to throw more money after more vessels”.

The Hanjin Rome was arrested in Singapore following a court petition late Monday, and shipowner PIL has reportedly refused to allow the Hanjin Mexico to sail due to unpaid charter fees; the Mexico was drifting off Ulsan as of Wednesday evening.

No more Hanjin export loads will be accepted at the SPA’s terminals in Charleston or at its inland port in Greer until further notice, the state maritime agency said. It would be hard to find alternative ships given high seasonal demand from August to October.

Freight rates on some routes where Hanjin operates many ships have surged. Cargo owners said rates from Busan, Korea, to Los Angeles had risen by $600 per container by Thursday from $1,700 four days earlier.

“The big question now is what happens to the goods coming in and what happens to the ships”, said Robert Krieger, president of Krieger Worldwide, a boutique custom broker and freight forwarder.

“Now Hanjin must do everything it can to protect its clients’ cargoes and make sure they are not delayed to their destination, by filing injunctions to block seizures in all the countries where its ships are located”, said Bongiee Joh, managing director of the Korea Shipowners’ Association.

Evergreen Line, as the Carrier to issue the Bill of Lading for the shipment under Evergreen Line’s custody, will not prejudice to cargo owner’s rights.

While mobile phones and semiconductors are carried by air, other electronics like home appliances are shipped by sea.

The company ended service at the Port of Portland in February 2015 amid labor strife.

Meanwhile, two Hanjin ships scheduled to arrive Wednesday at the nation’s two largest ports, Los Angeles and Long Beach, Calif., canceled their plans to berth and were drifting off the coast, their contents – bound for retail shelves, factories and warehouses – marooned indefinitely.