Breaking news! Hanjin, one of the world’s largest shipping company’s has just filed for bankruptcy protection. Apparently they ran into financial troubles. But the key point is this.
45 of their ships are “stranded at sea”. Ports are not willing to let their ships dock because of their financial uncertainty. As a result over 500,000 containers are in limbo now.
If you have an ocean shipment currently in transit, I recommend you check with your freight forwarder to make sure that it is not on one of these Hanjin vessels. If so, better prepare for delays.
Even if this didn’t affect you directly, you may be impacted because freight costs are going up! The cost of a 40 ft container from China to the US is expected to rise up to 50% in the near future with Hanjin’s vessels going offline while ocean freight traffic increases as we enter the busy retail holiday shopping season in Q4. According to freight forwarder Flexport, “The price from China to West Coast ports rose from $1,100 per container to as much as $1,700 on Thursday, while the cost from China to the East Coast jumped from $1,700 to $2,400.”
If you were affected please contact me and let me know your situation. Sharing is caring – please forward this to anyone that might benefit.
The newspaper noted, “Coincidentally, the government and state-run creditors turned cold toward Hanjin Shipping, one of Cho’s major companies, and had the country’s largest container carrier head to bankruptcy court.”
There are concerns that Hanjin’s problems will create continuing difficulties for carriers in both Korea and around the world.