One Hanjin ship cleared to dock at US port, others remain in limbo

A Hanjin Shipping container vessel idled off the coast of Mexico after the company's bankruptcy has received permission to dock and unload cargo at the Port of Long Beach, industry and union officials said Friday.

Authorisation for the Hanjin Greece to enter the port came after bankruptcy courts in the United States and South Korea cleared the way for the company to spend $10 million to unload cargo from four ships headed for ports on the US West Coast.

South Korea said it expects Hanjin Greece to start unloading cargo on Saturday morning US time. Hanjin could not be immediately reached for a comment.

"We're looking forward to getting these ships unloaded, said Ray Familathe, vice-president of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union representing 20,000 dockworkers. But he said that could be complicated by legal wrangling.

"It's a day-to-day thing for us," he said.

US Bankruptcy Judge John Sherwood, who issued an order barring seizure of Hanjin property by creditors, acknowledged that some details remained unresolved and urged the parties to "self-help" and work out problems among themselves.

That could prove thorny. Hanjin has identified 14 US-bound ships in bankruptcy filings, including the Hanjin Greece and two other vessels currently near the Southern California coast.

Port operators, cargo owners, longshoremen, shippers and others all must reach financial agreements with Hanjin before each ship can be docked, officials said.

Terminal operators could be reluctant to allow Hanjin ships to dock without assurances they would leave promptly, said Robert Krieger, president of Krieger Worldwide, a customs broker and freight forwarder headquartered in Carson, California.

"The money is in place to pay for as far as I can tell," Krieger said. "The question is, once that happens, what happens next? Because the terminal operators don't want the ships to stay there."