Troubled South Korean firm Hanjin Shipping has been granted temporary bankruptcy protection in the U.S. He expects a ruling in Hanjing's favor.
The group said that Hanjin's ships, and the cargo they carry, have mostly been seized by its creditors, adding that the ships are having to wait outside seaports before being given further instructions on whether they are permitted to enter.
Some Hanjin vessels have not be allowed to dock due to uncertainty about the company's finances.
It's been a week since South Korea's biggest shipping company filed for bankruptcy.
Hanjin Group executives made the announcement after talks with main creditor Korea Development Bank.
The Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners had a special meeting Tuesday "to discuss price and terms of payment for the Pier T Container Terminal", according to the meeting agenda. The family-dominated parent company includes a number of other ventures-including Korean Air.
The 381-acre former naval property brings in about $81 million for the port, but the lease expires in 2027. Out of the company's 141 ships, 68 were stranded, seized or otherwise idle, as of Sunday.
Samsung Electronics has said it has goods worth about $38m on Hanjin ships in global waters.
More news: Explosion rattles New Jersey beach town
"All these costs and delays will be a loss not only to Samsung, but also to major retailers in the USA and, ultimately, to U.S. consumers", Samsung said. "The upcoming months are critically important to retailers, particularly ahead of Black Friday and the holiday shopping season", the filing said.
Hanjin's vessels are holding $24.4 million in television parts meant for factories in Mexico, along with $13.5 million in refrigerators, washing machines, microwave ovens and dishwashers, Jung Tae Ahn, the senior vice president of the company's Visual Display Business division, said in court documents.
The French shipping company CMA CGM said that it would discharge the South Korean company's containers already on-board its vessels to the final destination, but it would no longer load its containers on the carrier's ships. The rest, $36million, will come from Hanjin Chairman Cho Yang-ho's personal assets.
The parties pressing for arrest were World Fuel Services Inc and OceanConnet Marine PTE Ltd, and Hanjin's attorney said the company expected to work out an arrangement to release the ship next week.
Helped by cheap loans, container lines have hung on even as freight rates to move sneakers to Barbie dolls from Asia to Europe and the USA plunged on sluggish demand. Shares of Hanjin Shipping have tumbled 61 per cent this year compared with a 5.5 per cent gain in the benchmark Kospi index.
"We did have a limited number of containers hung up on those ships; there's going to be some pricing pressure at this point", chief executive officer John Idol said Wednesday at a conference in NY. "There's been a downturn in the containerized cargo trade since 2014". That's created a weird situation on the high seas for 85 Hanjin ships that have been effectively marooned offshore as ports in the U.S., Asia and Europe have turned the company's ships away.
Meanwhile, ships may soon be moving again, but the full impact of the bankruptcy is only beginning to be felt.
