Some 44 of Hanjin Shipping Co Ltd's ships have been so far denied access to ports while 1 ship has been seized, Reuters reports quoting a company spokeswoman.

The 44 ships include instances where port service providers such as lashing firms have denied service, or port authorities are denying entry to ports. Hanjin operates 98 container ships.

With South Korea's biggest shipping company filing for bankruptcy protection, the vessels, sailors and cargo of Hanjin Shipping are stuck in limbo, stranded at sea, reports BBC.

Ports, fearing they will not get paid, refuse to let them dock or unload. That means the ships are forced to wait for Hanjin, its creditors or partners to find a solution.

It's a case of unprecedented scale, with experts expecting the deadlock to last for weeks, if not months.

"Unlike dry cargo, liner shipping is all about marketing and service reliability – we haven’t seen any large carriers come back from collapse," said Rahul Kapoor , a director at maritime consultancy Drewry Financial Research Services.

Meanwhile, Spot container freight rates on the major routes from Asia soared by up to 42% today following the collapse of Hanjin Shipping, data from the World Container Index reveals.

“Unpredictable freight rates are not new phenomenon in the container industry, however a major upheaval of supply like this is likely to cause extreme short-term price volatility. Shippers should expect increasing freight costs and tight allocation for several weeks at least,” said Richard Heath, general manager of WCI.

According to TT News, woes at Hanjin Shipping, South Korea’s largest sea container shipping firm and the world’s seventh-biggest with a 2.9% market share, are derailing the supply chains of companies that need to send goods well in advance of the year’s biggest shopping season as the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays approach.

U.S. retailers urged their government to take steps to minimise disruption from the collapse of the world's seventh-largest container shipper as more of its vessels have been seized or blocked from entering ports around the world.