Los Angeles: The bankruptcy of the Hanjin shipping line has thrown ports and retailers around the world into confusion, with giant container ships marooned and merchants worrying whether tonnes of goods will reach their shelves.
The South Korean giant filed for bankruptcy protection on Wednesday and stopped accepting new cargo. With its assets being frozen, ships from China to Canada found themselves refused permission to offload or take aboard containers because there were no guarantees that tugboat pilots or stevedores would be paid.
“Hanjin called us and said: ‘We’re going bankrupt and we can’t pay any bills – so don’t bother asking’,” said J Kip Louttit, executive director of the Marine Exchange of Southern California, which provides traffic control for the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the nation’s busiest port complex.
Three Hanjin container ships, ranging from about 213m to 304m long, were either drifting offshore or anchored away from terminals on Thursday. A fourth vessel that was supposed to leave Long Beach on Thursday morning remained anchored inside the breakwater.
The Seoul-based company said yesterday that one ship in Singapore had been seized by the ship’s owner. Hanjin Shipping spokesman Park Min did not confirm any other seizures.
As of Friday, 27 ships had been refused entry to ports or terminals, she said.
That left cargo headed to and from Asia in limbo, much to the distress of merchants looking to stock shelves with fall fashions or Christmas toys. “Someone from the garment industry called earlier asking: ‘How long is this going to go on, because I’ve got clothing out there’,” Louttit said.
The Korea International Trade Association (KITA) said about 10 Hanjin vessels in China were seized or likely to be seized by charterers, port authorities or other parties.
Kim Byung-hoon, a director at the KITA, said the association had confirmed that about 10 Hanjin vessels also had been turned away from Chinese ports or were waiting offshore.
South Korea’s maritime ministry said that Hanjin’s troubles would affect cargo exports for two to three months, given that August-October is a high-demand season for deep-sea routes. It said 540,000 TEU of cargo already loaded on Hanjin vessels would face delays.
Hanjin, the world’s seventh-largest container shipper, represents nearly eight per cent of the trans-Pacific trade volume for the US market.
The National Retail Federation, the world’s largest retail trade association, wrote to US Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker and Federal Maritime Commission chairman Mario Cordero, urging them to work with the South Korean government, ports and others to prevent disruptions.
The bankruptcy is having “a ripple effect throughout the global supply chain” that could cause significant harm to both consumers and the US economy, the association wrote.
Hanjin has been losing money for years. It filed for bankruptcy protection a day after its creditors, led by a state-run bank, refused to prop it up.
Other shipping lines may take on some of Hanjin’s traffic but at a price. Since vessels already are operating at high capacity, shippers may wind up paying a premium to squeeze their cargo containers on board, said Beacon Economics international trade adviser Jock O’Connell.
The price of shipping a 40-foot container from China to the US jumped up to 50 per cent in a single day, said Nerijus Poskus, director of pricing and procurement for Flexport, a licensed freight forwarder and customs broker.
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