In International Shipping News 07/11/2016
South Korea’s Hanjin Shipping Co. that is under court-led restructuring is expected to complete the disposal of all of its vessels this month at the earliest, a move that would practically lead once the world’s seventh largest shipper to liquidation.
An unnamed official from the shipping industry said on Friday that Hanjin Shipping has returned most of its chartered ships to their foreign owners, and it plans to sell off all of its own ships this month.
Following the recent return of its chartered ships, Hanjin Shipping is left with 22 container ships including two chartered vessels that will be also returned to foreign ship owners soon and five privately-owned vessels that will be sold to a local shipping company as part of its asset sale plan. The shipper is said to have decided to sell off the rest 15 container ships that were purchased with loans from local and foreign financial banks through shipping finance to pay back the remaining debts.
Amid ongoing efforts to sell assets, the fate of Hanjin Shipping – whether or not it will ultimately fall into bankruptcy – will be decided next week.
According to multiple sources from the legal circle on Friday, the submission date of a study report by Samil PricewaterhouseCoopers on analyzing the status of Hanjin Shipping and possible insolvency has been delayed by one week from the initial date of November 4.
If a court decides to liquidate it, Hanjin Shipping, once world’s seventh-largest shipper and the country’s largest container carrier with 98 container vessels, would come apart only three months after it filed for court receivership in September.
Meanwhile, Hyundai Merchant Marine Co. (HMM) that has become the country’s sole national flag carrying container shipper after managing successfully to survive its own liquidity crunch is most likely to buy Hanjin Shipping’s key asset, its container terminal in Algeciras, Spain. With the addition of the new terminal, HMM is expected to enhance its operation capacity by linking base harbors in Europe and Africa to its United States route.
Source: Pulse
