Aftermath of Chaos
The South Korean government announced on November 8 that 94 out of the 97 container carriers of Hanjin Shipping completed their container unloading as of the previous day, 52 at ports abroad and the rest at ports in South Korea. The same process is expected to be completed in the near future for the other three, too. Then, the delayed unloading triggered on August 31 by the receivership of Hanjin Shipping is wrapped up.
As of November 7, the unloading of 378,000 TEU has been completed out of the 396,000 TEU governed by Hanjin Shipping’s contracts and 343,000 TEU has been delivered to shippers.
At present, 377 South Korean and 394 foreign crew members are aboard Hanjin Shipping ships across the world. The South Korean government is going to continue to provide medical assistance and daily necessities for them until they come back home.
In the meantime, the Port of Busan, the largest port in South Korea that handles more than 10 million TEU of transshipment cargoes a year, took a severe hit in the wake of the receivership of Hanjin Shipping. Specifically, the port’s transshipment cargo handling volume plummeted by 69.1 percent from 103,697 TEU in August to 32,024 TEU in September.