Dive Brief:

• Hanjin Shipping Co. plans to file for bankruptcy protection in the courts of some 10 additional countries this week, including Canada, Germany and the U.K., after making similar moves in the U.S. and its native South Korea, where it is the dominant shipper, the Wall Street Journal reports.

• The ocean freight company filed for Chapter 15 asset protection (which covers international solvency) in the U.S. Friday, and a hearing is scheduled for Tuesday. Its creditors last week dissolved a financial lifeline responsible for keeping the company afloat the last several years.

• The seventh-largest ocean shipper by capacity, Hanjin has some 60 regular lines worldwide and annually moves more than 100 million tons of cargo, according to court papers cited by the Wall Street Journal, which calls its bankruptcy the largest by far in the history of the industry. More than half of its assets are stranded, the Journal added. The South Korean government has given Hanjin until Nov. 25 to submit a plan outlining its rehabilitation efforts, but that’s widely seen as in measure allowing the company a wider berth to wind down its operations.

Dive Insight:

Hanjin carries 7.8% of the U.S. market's trans-Pacific trade volume, and millions of dollars worth of merchandise could be delayed by the shipper's woes. The number of Hanjin ships denied access to ports in locales including in the U.S., China, Canada, Singapore and Spain has risen to 79, including 61 container ships and 18 bulk carriers, according to South Korea’s financial regulator. Hanjin has 141 ships in all, and is operating 128.

Hanjin’s troubles have already caused spikes in the cost of moving cargo to and from ports, leaving retailers to scramble to get merchandise to stores and warehouses just as they’re preparing for their all-important holiday season. 

“Retailers’ main concern is that there is millions of dollars worth of merchandise that needs to be on store shelves that could be impacted by this,” National Retail Federation Vice President for Supply Chain and Customs Policy Jonathan Gold said in a statement Thursday. “It is understandable that port terminal operators, railroads, trucking companies and others don’t want to do work for Hanjin if they are concerned they won’t get paid. However, we need all parties to work together to find solutions to move this cargo so it does not have a broader impact on the economy.

The NRF forecasts that major U.S. retail container ports will handle 1.61 million Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units this month, down 0.6% from the same month last year, and said that “all parties” must work together to ensure that cargo gets onto retail warehouses and store shelves as intended. Gold admitted that there are more questions than answers at this point, but said retailers are working to address the matter, "working with all of their service providers to find ways to get their cargo moving to ensure that there is no or limited interruption in the supply of merchandise.”