A vessel stuck off the Southern California coast was the first Hanjin ship in the U.S. to start unloading since the company’s financial collapse last week.

The Hanjin Greece, which had recently been parked near the Mexican border, docked early Saturday at the Port of Long Beach’s Total Terminals International, where Hanjin owns a majority stake.

The movement came after a U.S. bankruptcy judge issued an order allowing the financially ailing Hanjin Shipping Co. provisional protection from creditors so vessels could dock and unload products, and retailers could begin selling those products in stores.

It’s the first visible sign the standstill from the of the seventh largest shipping company could be easing.

“This is a big relief for cargo owners and good news for the American consumer just in time for the holiday shopping season,” said Noel Hacegaba, the Port of Long Beach’s chief commercial officer and director of operations.

But so far none of the cargo is getting loaded on to trucks or trains and headed to stores, he said.

Retailers including Samsung, HP and Forever 21, with millions of dollars worth of goods on Hanjin-operated ships, have been ordered by U.S. bankruptcy Judge John Sherwood to hammer out a plan this weekend to get goods moving and clear up how cargo handlers will get paid.

The scenario has created a logistical nightmare for U.S. retailers worried that even if they do get their goods soon, they will be stuck with Hanjin cargo boxes.

Paying to move cargo

Clearing the way for Saturday’s berthing, a South Korean bankruptcy court approved the release of $10 million in funding for costs associated with unloading four Hanjin Shipping Co. chartered ships: The Hanjin Greece, Boston, Gdyina and Jungil.

And on Saturday, Reuters reported Korean Air Lines, which holds the largest stake in Hanjin Shipping, will inject $54 million into the troubled company. But the approval is on the condition it can use the company’s stake in Total Terminals International in Long Beach.

The chairman of it’s parent company, Hanjin Group – part of vast family-run conglomerate begun in 1945 as a trucking company that gained success thanks to U.S. military contracts during the Korean and later Vietnam war – also said he would personally provide $36 million of his own wealth.

But how the funds get divvied up along the supply chain remains disputed as dozens of vessels lingered at sea from the coasts of California to Asia.

The Hanjin Boston remained stranded off the Southern California coast. The other two were somewhere off the West Coast, said Kip Louttit, executive director of Marine Exchange of Southern California. Both had been scheduled to dock into Long Beach’s port.

Beyond that there are still nine other Hanjin operated ships floating in U.S. waters, their future in limbo.

Black Friday concerns

In the meantime, smaller retailers and truck drivers dependent on the regularity of shipments at the nation’s busiest seaport complex feel the brunt of Hanjin’s financial fall.

“It’s very, very challenging,” said Alex Rasheed, president of Pacific Textiles and Sourcing Incorporated, a Los Angeles-based apparel company that offers clothes to big box stores like JC Penny, Macy’s and Wal-Mart. “This is the time where you start building up inventories for Black Friday. You work all year for the holiday season only for this kind off stuff to pop up.”

He’s waiting for word on 16 containers full of men’s apparel coming from countries like Vietnam. But he can’t afford a high-priced lawyer to claim the clothes. And the more days he waits the greater the chance that retailers will cancel their order with him.

“This can lead to big losses,” he said “This is frustrating, especially after last year, we had the port (labor strife).”

Barb Maynard, a spokeswoman for the Teamster’s union and an advocate for port truck drivers, said there are big rig drivers who aren’t getting paid because loads aren’t coming out. But they still must pay to lease and insure trucks.

“It is a tough, tough market here and these guys are hanging on,” she said.

Hanjin ships represent about 8 percent of all trade between Asia and the United States. This week at least other shipping companies begun adding routes.