HANJIN SHIPPING COLLAPSE LEAVES UP TO 15,000 CARGO
CONTAINERS PILED UP
A
s many as 15,000 steel cargo boxes
leased or owned by the failed Hanjin
Shipping Co. have nowhere to go.
Since the company collapsed at the end of
August, the orphaned containers have piled
up in and around the ports of Long Beach
and Los Angeles — and no one’s quite sure
what to do with them. They can’t stay here;
the real estate is too scarce, especially ahead
of the busy holiday season.
Some people were hinting to take (the
boxes) out in the desert and abandon them,”
said Dan Monnier, who sits on the board of
the Los Angeles Customs Brokers & Freight
Forwarders Association, which arranges
transportation for retailers. “It sounds cute,
but remember, (the containers) still belong
to the bankrupt company Hanjin.”
“
Lawyers for Hanjin could not be reached for
comment. Hanjin, the seventh-largest
shipping company in the world, failed to
secure funding from the Korea Development
Bank on Aug. 30,then abruptly ended
services leaving ships and crews stranded
and billions of dollars worth of cargo in limbo.
As the courts slowly unwind the finances of
the company and work to get creditors paid,
the company’s assets and leased property —
including the steel containers — are scattered
around the world. Container company Seaco
Global Ltd., based in London, leased about
50,000 containers to Hanjin that it cannot
account for, said Neil B. Klein, an Irvine-based
attorney representing the company. Right
now, he is looking for the location of those
boxes.
At the local ports, there may finally be a
solution in store for the blue containers with
Hanjin painted in white. On Friday, Alex
Chernin, a spokesman for logistics company
Total Transportation Services Inc., confirmed
the company is hammering out a plan to open
up a 100-acre facility in Ontario where the
containers can be stored.
source: Hellenic shipping news
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