PSA Corp has berthed and serviced more than a dozen ships of the bankrupt Hanjin line and helped release more than 3,000 containers of freight to customers, the port operator said yesterday.
It has devised a number of options to allow containers to be accessed, or shipped on to their final destinations. It was forced to act after South Korea's Hanjin, the seventh-largest carrier globally, filed for receivership in August, leaving more than 100 ships carrying about US$14 billion (S$19 billion) worth of cargo out at sea in various parts of the world.
PSA said on its website yesterday: "We have been working closely with Hanjin, shippers and consignees to facilitate the delivery of local import containers, as well as the loading and transfer of transhipment containers bound for other destinations.
"PSA is also utilising container yard space to store more than 3,500 empty containers that have been collected so far... (and is) acting as a container depot."
Customers who have had containers unloaded from Hanjin vessels in Singapore have three ways of getting them to their final destination.
One is transloading, where the Hanjin container's goods many be unpacked and placed into a non-Hanjin container and transported to its final destination.
This could be undertaken at PSA's Keppel Distripark within the Free Trade Zone, allowing exemption from the goods and services tax.
Alternatively, a shipper could take over the lease or subleases of the container from Hanjin and arrange with another shipping line to deliver it to its final destination port. Handling charges must be paid to PSA by the shipper in this case.
Another option is direct interchange, where the shipper arranges with Hanjin for another shipping line to take over the container's lease and take it on to its final destination.
Containers that have been shipped here by Hanjin for local companies' import can also be accessed. Once their containers have been discharged from ships, they are stacked in PSA's container yards.
After a refundable deposit of $5,000 a container has been paid, the box can be transported out of the port area to be unpacked. The deposit will be refunded once the empty container has been returned to PSA's yards.
PSA noted that at least 11 Hanjin vessels had called and departed from local ports by Wednesday and three more are expected to have called and departed since that date.
The latest vessel, Hanjin China, would have berthed here yesterday.
