Hanjin Shipping to Pay Handlers to Unload U.S.-Bound Ships

A lawyer for Hanjin Shipping Co. said Friday that a South Korean court has authorized the company to pay to unload some USA -bound ships carrying cargo that has been stranded at sea since the shipping giant filed for bankruptcy last week.

Cargo handling operators refused to work for the shipping company because they were anxious that the cash-strapped firm could not make payment.

The collapse of Hanjin has caused havoc in global trade networks and a surge in freight rates, as more than half of Hanjin’s 141 ships have been blocked from docking at ports.

Cash-strapped Hanjin Shipping Co. was given provisional court protection in the USA on Friday to unload cargo at some ports without worrying about its ships being seized by its creditors, industry sources said Saturday.

Reuters quoted Ilana Volkov, an attorney for Hanjin, as telling the U.S. bankruptcy court that the company had at least $10m authorized by the Korean courts to allow four vessels off the USA to come into port and unload their cargoes.

Also, some of its ships have been seized by its creditors, further complicating the problem.

An arrest warrant was entered against the Hanjin Montevideo, now anchored off Long Beach, and the ship was seized. “We want the customers to get their goods”. Hanjin has suggested cargo owners were free to pay cargo handling fees owed by Hanjin, which Samsung Electronics called ransom payments. Sherwood was told that port terminals were not accepting the routine return of empty Hanjin shipping containers from retailers, forcing stores to spend to store them. As containers piled up with retailers and on docks, the available pool of chassis used to transport containers was dwindling.

Samsung Electronics asked a USA local court to allow it to unload its goods from container ships owned by troubled shipper Hanjin Shipping Co., industry sources said Friday.

Hanjin, one of the world’s largest shipping companies, filed for the equivalent of chapter 11 in South Korea last week and days later sought chapter 15 bankruptcy protection in the U.S. Chapter 15, which Judge Sherwood approved on an interim basis Tuesday, gives a foreign company the benefits of U.S. bankruptcy law, including protections that prevent creditors from seizing assets.