South Korea

South Korean container shipper Hanjin Shipping Co Ltd said on Friday its membership in the CKYHE shipping alliance has been suspended, adding to the troubles of the country's top shipping firm, Reuters reported. The firm was notified of the suspension late on Thursday, a Hanjin Shipping spokeswoman said. The alliance includes China COSCO, Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp and Evergreen Marine Corp Taiwan Ltd. Hanjin filed for court receivership on Wednesday after creditor banks decided to end financial support.

In a related story, Reuters reported that Hyundai Merchant Marine Co Ltd said on Thursday it will deploy vessels on routes that bankrupt Hanjin Shipping used to use from South Korea to the United States and Europe, it said in a statement on Thursday. Hyundai Merchant Marine said it will start on Sept. 8 deploying four ships capable of carrying 4,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) each, on the route between Busan, South Korea, and Los Angeles.

Several ports, including those in China and the United States, have denied entry to ships of South Korea's Hanjin Shipping Co on concerns it won't be able to pay fees after banks halted support to the firm, a company spokeswoman said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. The ports that have so far blocked entry to its ships are Xiamen and Xingang, China; Valencia, Spain; Savannah, United States, and Prince Rupert, Canada, the spokeswoman said.

Hanjin Shipping Co. will apply for court receivership after lenders decided to halt all support to South Korea’s biggest container shipping line, Bloomberg News reported. The company’s board decided on the move at a meeting in Seoul Wednesday and will file for receivership this afternoon, a spokesman said. The decision was unanimous.

Hanjin Shipping’s creditors have moved up their meeting to consider whether the cargo carrier’s restructuring plan is enough to prevent the company from facing bankruptcy and court receivership. According to The Korea Times, the date for creditors to vote on whether to put the shipper under receivership, originally set for Sept. 2, has been moved up to Tuesday, which has already begun in South Korea. The largest creditor, Korea Development Bank, had set a deadline of Sept.

Cash-strapped Hanjin Shipping Co. said Sunday that its creditors' extended help is crucial for its survival as its negotiations with owners of chartered ships over a cut in leasing rates and to postpone debt repayments to foreign creditors made significant progress, the Yonhap News Agency reported. The country's No.

Hanjin Shipping on Thursday submitted its plan to boost liquidity to the Korea Development Bank, its largest creditor, but gave little details, JOC.com reported. South Korean financial sources have indicated that the plan involves asset sales beyond the previously disclosed efforts to raise 411.2 billion South Korean won ($357 million) and could reach as high as 700 billion won. Hanjin has already sold stakes in a terminal in Vietnam, a ship, its London office and its remaining stakes in H-Line Shipping, to which it sold its liquefied natural gas and dedicated dry bulk divisions in 2014.

The fate of debt-ridden Hanjin Shipping Co. remains yet uncertain with its parent group having missed the August 20 deadline to submit additional financial support measures to creditors to salvage its shipping unit from heading to court receivership, Pulse reported. All eyes are now on whether the South Korean shipping company would successfully strike a deal with foreign ship owners to reduce chartering fees, a move that is expected to allow its creditors to be more lenient in providing additional financial support.

South Korea's financial watchdog on Sunday said 32 big local firms should carry out restructuring, a move that could be aimed at keeping financially troubled companies from further hurting Asia's fourth-largest economy, the Yonhap News Agency reported. The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) made the announcement after conducting a credit risk analysis on 602 companies, which were selected out of 1,973 owing over 50 billion won (US$44 million) to banks and showed signs of financial health problems.

South Korea is overhauling its capital controls, making it easier to tap overseas markets in a partial reversal of its battle against hot money inflows since the global financial crisis, the Financial Times reported. The move reflects fears that the banking system would struggle were money to suddenly flow out as US interest rates rise. The action, announced jointly by the finance ministry and regulators, came hours after Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen kept alive the prospect of another US rate rise in the coming months.