Hanjin Collapse: Cargo Owners Look for Saftey
Cargo owners are becoming more concerned about risks and are shifting their business to shipping lines deemed more financially stable after the collapse of South Korea's Hanjin Shipping Co Ltd, Reuters reported quoting top shipping executives.
Robbert van Trooijen, Asia Pacific chief executive of AP Moeller-Maersk's container shipping arm, said the company was seeing a "flight to safe havens" after the August collapse of Hanjin left $14 billion of cargo stranded at sea.
"It reminded the customer of the financial situation of many of the carriers in the trade," he told Reuters via a telephone interview on Monday, adding most firms' financial stability was "not great."
Maersk's comments were echoed by Taiwanese rival Evergreen Marine Corp which also told Reuters last week it had recently provided relevant information to large U.S. companies to assure them of its financial health.
"They are making additional efforts to check shipping firms' financial status. The most important thing for us is to assure our customers. We have the support of our parent company, Evergreen Group," said the shipping line's spokesman Golden Kou.
To survive, multiple shipping lines have embarked on mega-mergers or teamed up with rivals, the latest being Japan's top three carriers who announced last week that they would merge operations to create the world's sixth-largest fleet.