Hanjin bankruptcy and asia trade

[Iain]

Welp, looks like Hanjin has gone belly up.  From what I hear, they can't even pay port fees or fuel for ships, so ships are going to be stuck all over the place with full holds.  Here in Seattle, one Hanjin was offloading when things went down, but customs fees hadn't been paid, so now a half a ship's load worth of containers is stuck on the dock and can't be moved, causing all sorts of problems.

One of Hanjin's biggest customers was Samsung, with whom they had an exclusive contract.  So, if you want a Samsung device, you'd better buy it now.

[Iain]

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-37241727

[Iain]

Ooops, I posted about this in the proto forum.  Maybe the mods could combine threads?

From what I understand, Hanjin had exclusive shipping with samsung.  That not only is going to directly hit consumers, but also the electronics industry as a whole, since Samsung makes a significant amount of silicon.

[nkalanaga]

"Just in time", at least in the auto industry, works great - in Japan.  Most of their manufacturing is on the east coast of the main island, where shipping distances are small, population and factory density is high, and it's all in one country.  Other than earthquakes and typhhons there's little to go wrong.

It doesn't work so well in North America, where distances are large, there's a lot of open space, and few people, between the manufacturing centers, and we're dealing with three countries.  There are simply too many ways. and places, for something to go wrong.  But  the entire auto industry seems to have the mindset that "Japan knows how it should be done".  Our filter factory is constantly running out of parts and materials simply because "keeping/making inventory is not the way it's done".  Everything is to be made as it's ordered/needed, because anything sitting is a waste - until the supply chain is disrupted.

I asked the production manager if he'd heard about the Italian earthquake, as our head offices are in Italy.  He said no, because the news is "all depressing", so he doesn't read/watch/listen to any of it.  I wonder if they even know that our Asian shipments are in trouble yet?

[OldEastRR]

I think that inventories are kept lean nowadays because I vaguely remember some time back that the tax laws were re-written regarding values of stored materials. IIRC there had been some kind of tax allowance or deduction for unsold stock but that got abolished or changed to a tax charge, so companies, businesses and retailers went to trying to maintain only the barest amount of stock, hoping instead to fill shortages by quick shipments inbound. That also includes spare parts; they turned into a tax liability so nobody wanted to keep them on hand.

[havingfuntoo]

Don't forget about Hyundai Merchant Marine, they had reduced their fleet and I am of  the understanding that some of the moth balled ships are being pressed back in to service.

[TLOC]

https://www.porttechnology.org/news/hyundai_merchant_marine_buys_hanjin

Hyundai Merchant Marine has purchased the assets. Everything should be back to normal for Hanjin ships in a few days. The ship companies should be happy now that the rates have risen.

Tom

[nkalanaga]

"Hyundai Merchant Marine has purchased the assets."

As someone earlier said, more or less what happens with most railroad failures in North America.  If the railroad itself is needed, someone will acquire it.  Only if the business has no business, or others are already in position to serve the same customers, will it actually be abandoned.

[Albert in N]

Just thinking, I was planning on buying Kato's N scale AOK stack cars with Hanjin containers for my layout.  It sounded like a good idea at the time.  http://www.katousa.com/N/MAXI-I/106-6156.jpg

[nkalanaga]

I'm sure there will be Hanjin containers around for some time.  I was talking to the "assistant manager" at the new Prichard Intermodal Park awhile back, and he recommended that our plant NOT buy its own container, if we decided to ship parts that way.  He said that, once the container has been sent out, we'd never get it back!  If that's the case, and they end up roaming endlessly, Hanjin containers may be around a LONG time.

For what it's worth, I think we would get ours back, but it probably doesn't matter, as I can't see the company changing form less-than-truckload shipments to containers.  If ours were set up to handle specific dunnage, for a specific customer, they'd be sending the empty dunnage back, so the container would be loaded both ways.  But I don't make decisions for the company, so we'll never know.

And, the "assistant manager" used air quotes himself.  The terminal isn't actually running yet, so he and the manager are the only two people there!

[JoeD]

Sure feels good to be working for Micro-Trains right now

[Missaberoad]

Sure feels good to be working for Micro-Trains right now

[randgust]

Sure doesn't sound like its solved yet:

http://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/samsung-asks-u-s-court-help-remove-ghost-cargo-bankrupt-n645376