A recent New Jersey bankruptcy court filing has revealed that attorneys for some of Hanjin’s creditors have asked permission to foreclose on container assets and sell them.
Maher Terminals LLC, which runs the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey’s marine terminals and is one of the largest multi user container terminal operators in the world, is asking for permission to sell Hanjin containers.
The documents have revealed that the presence of Hanjin containers is causing a severe backlog and is limiting valuable space available within the Maher Facility to offload containers from ships arriving into the ports.
The issues started as soon as Hanjin went bankrupt as ports kept receiving containers often weeks after they were due to arrive.
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Roughly 15,000 empty Hanjin containers came through the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach after the company’s bankruptcy in August 2016.
Hanjin now owes more than US$3 million in penalties and storage fees on 256 containers taking up space at Maher Terminals LLC docks.
It estimates that each one would reach $1,000 if sold in bulk, which is significantly less than the total Storage Charges owed by Hanjin to Maher.
Hanjin’s creditors said in this week’s filing: “Every day that the Banks are delayed from selling the containers, significant storage charges are incurred and the risk that the containers are sold by the terminals or depots where they are stranded is heightened.”
