What’s happened?
South Korea’s largest shipping line, Hanjin, have been forced to file for bankruptcy after its creditors refused to provide further funding to the failing company. Hanjin, the seventh largest container shipping line in the world lost around £325 million in the first six months of 2016. As a result there was no way back for the shipping giant.
How will it affect my shipment?
In short, if your shipment is with Shippo, we will contact you if you are affected in any way. The vast majority of our customers are not likely to have any disruption to the normal service.
UK ports have turned away Hanjin vessels in recent days. If you have a shipment on a vessel owned by Hanjin then you could face considerable delays to your delivery as they may be held off shore for some time whilst the courts and the creditors pick through the bones of a complicated insolvency process.
We have a small number of shipments in Hanjin containers on vessels not owned by Hanjin. These will almost certainly be affected in some way. Ports were refusing to accept/release these containers but we are now being asked to pay extra to have these Hanjin containers unloaded from vessels owned by one of the other lines. We are hoping to have these containers unpacked and the contents delivered to their rightful owners. Due to the uncertainty, we can’t guarantee that this will be as swift as normal.
Knock on effects
It’s difficult to predict how the situation will pan out as there is still a lot of uncertainly. We anticipate that with a number of vessels out of action there will be a lack of space on some major routes. This could potentially lead to some rate increases as shippers fight for space. This could be exacerbated in the peak season with everyone trying to get their goods on the water for the Christmas period.
Contingency plans
There may be a shortage of vessels sailing between Asia and the UK now Hanjin won’t be running vessels as planned. However, this is only expected to be a short term issue as Hyundai Merchant Marine Co. are due to step in and add a number of container ships and therefore much needed capacity to the route.
In conclusion, a lot of companies involved in global trade will be affected by this collapse to a lesser or greater extent. However, normal service should resume before too long. If you are concerned in any way, please give us a call on 0203 384 0498 and we’ll be happy to help.