Effects of shipping giant’s bankruptcy on Seattle just beginning
Sep 2, 2016, 8:15 AM
The Port of Seattle could feel the impact of Hanjin’s bankruptcy as soon as Saturday.
One of the company’s container ships is due to arrive in Elliott Bay, but Terminal 46 is refusing to accept its cargo.
“You’ve got ships coming in right now with goods that are supposed to get on boats and trucks and rail and go to stores,” Washington Council on International Trade’s Eric Schinfeld told KIRO 7. “If we don’t get this resolved pretty soon, you’ll notice it as soon as this week.”
Schinfeld said there could also be long term consequences.
Hanjin could be acquired by another shipping company that might decide to bypass Seattle and ship to Vancouver, B.C. or Long Beach.
If Hanjin doesn’t offload here, then it can’t be used to ship Washington products overseas either.
The South Korean shipping giant filed for bankruptcy protection on Wednesday. Because assets are being frozen, ships from China to Canada are being refused permission to offload or take aboard containers because there are no guarantees tugboat pilots or stevedores will be paid. There has been one reported board seizure since the news broke, the Associated Press reports.
Jon Talton of The Seattle Times writes that the effects of the bankruptcy “could be profound.” That is because Hanjin is one of the largest shipping lines in the world and, as Talton points out, is the “biggest container-ship company receivership in history.”
The National Retail Federation — the world’s largest retail trade association — urged the U.S. Secretary of Commerce and Federal Maritime Commission Chairman to work with the South Korean government and ports to try and prevent disruptions. The retail federation wrote the bankruptcy is having a “ripple effect throughout the global supply chain.”
The price of shipping a 40-foot container from China to the U.S. jumped up to 50 percent in a single day, said Nerijus Poskus, director of pricing and procurement for Flexport, a licensed freight forwarder and customs broker based in San Francisco.
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, he said.
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