Reuters has published impressive details about the financial collapse of the South Korean shipping company Hanjin Shipping, which is regarded as the seventh largest maritime cargo carrier globally. Here are the key figures:
– 14 billion dollars – estimated value of cargo on the company’s ships waiting for docking permits due to port authorities’ fears that they will not cover costs.
– 400,000 – estimated number of containers ‘stranded’ on Hanjin’s ships.
– 8,300 – estimated number of cargo owners.
– 38 million dollars – estimated value of goods, mainly televisions and other devices, located on two of Hanjin’s ships, which belong exclusively to Samsung.
– 1,700 dollars – average price of transporting goods in twelve-meter containers on the route between the U.S. West Coast and Asia. The price for the same service was 788 dollars in May.
– 7.8 percent – volume of total transpacific trade directed at the U.S. market for which Hanjin is responsible.
– 141 – total number of the company’s ships (97 for container transport and 44 for bulk cargo transport), of which more than half are prevented from docking, and four have been seized.
– 5.5 billion dollars – amount of Hanjin’s debt as of the end of June.
– 293 million dollars – current market valuation of Hanjin, which has lost about a third of its previous value in the last two weeks.
– 226 million dollars – operational loss of Hanjin from April to June with revenues of 1.3 billion dollars.
All leading companies in the shipping industry are suffering financial distress due to numerous interrelated factors including weak global GDP growth, excess capacity on ships, inventory saturation in U.S. stores, a slowdown in the Chinese economy, and a general decline in demand for container shipping.
