Hanjin Shipping Co.’s container boxes are stacked five high at Busan port in Gyeongsang Province on Sept. 9, 2016. (image: Yonhap)
SEOUL, Sept. 23 (Korea Bizwire) – Cash-strapped Hanjin Shipping Co. said Friday that a German court has accepted its stay of proceedings, paving the way for its ships to unload or take on containers at ports in the European country.
Vessels operated by Hanjin Shipping, South Korea’s No. 1 shipper, have been stranded at sea out of fears that they would be seized by creditors or port workers. Also, service firms have refused to work for the world’s seventh-largest shipping line.
Hanjin Shipping sought bankruptcy protection in the U.S. and South Korea earlier this month,
Hanjin said so far it has won stay orders in the U.S., Britain and Japan, and awaits final decisions on filings in Singapore and Belgium. It will seek similar action in Spain, Italy, Mexico and other nations.
As of Thursday, 35 out of its 97 container ships have completed unloading cargo.
The state-run Korea Development Bank, the main creditor of Hanjin Shipping decided to provide 50 billion won (US$45.2 million) in cash to help the ailing shipper proceed with cargo offloading.
Also, Cho Yang-ho, chairman of Hanjin Group, the parent company for Hanjin Shipping, offered 40 billion won in personal assets. Korean Air Lines Co., the largest shareholder of Hanjin Shipping, also decided to provide 60 billion won in loans to the embattled shipper.
Hanjin Shipping’s court receivership sent ripples through the global shipping network with more than half of its ships stranded at sea.
Earlier, the government said Hyundai Merchant Marine Co., the country’s No. 2 shipper, plans to deploy ships on Hanjin Shipping-operated routes.
Hyundai Merchant Marine, currently under a creditor-led debt restructuring scheme, may seek to take over Hanjin Shipping’s healthy assets such as port terminals and global business networks.
(Yonhap)
