The US bankruptcy judge granted Hanjin Shipping provisional protection from creditors in the United States, which allowed some of the company’s vessels to dock at US ports. The bankruptcy protection prevented creditors to seize Hanjin ships or property, but also allowed cargo owners to make arrangements with the goods on board. Following the decision of US Bankruptcy Judge John Sherwood, the container carriers Hanjin Boston, Hanjin Jungil, Hanjin Greece and Hanjin Gdynia will dock in USA, but maybe not in original ports of destinations, which may cause some logistic issued for the cargo owners. Hanjin Greece is the first of the container carriers of the company, which will be unloaded at the Port of Long Beach in southern California.

Cargo with total worth of almost 14 billion USD was tied up in 400,000 container on board of container ships of Hanjin, after ports, tugboat operators and cargo handling firms refused to handle their ships. The company filled for bankruptcy protection in Seoul Central District Court last week and waiting decision of the judge.

Meanwhile, the biggest shareholder in Hanjin, Korean Air, approved bridge-loan of 55 million USD, but only in exchange for collateral. Part from these funds will be directed for handling of the four carriers bound for USA. However, another 7 vessels are anchored or drifting off North American coast from Mexico to Panama City. More than half of Hanjin’s 141 ships have been blocked from docking at ports. The company ordered container ships to stay away from the ports, due to claims and seizure from creditors. Already, some of the company’s vessels were arrested in different points of the world due to unpaid bills.

Hanjin Shipping is South Korea’s largest and world’s seventh largest container carrier in terms of capacity. The company shipping operates some 60 liner and tramper services around the globe transporting over 100 million tons of cargo annually.

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– Hanjin Shipping facing bankruptcy [02/09]