SM Shipping, a newly created container liner under South Korea’s Samra Midas (SM) Group through purchase of Asia-North America route of bankrupt Hanjin Shipping, may not be able to start cargo service as planned in March because it is having a hard time securing containers to go on its fleet of 12 vessels.

Most of Hanjin Shipping’s containers have been seized by ship owners and authorities abroad after the company went under court receivership. Since it takes three to five months to build containers, SM Shipping may not be able to set sail in March as planned, a high-level source in the shipping industry said.

SM Shipping would need about 90,000 containers to deliver cargoes on its primary Asia-North America route and others. Before Hanjin Shipping was placed under court protection in September last year, the country’s largest and world’s seventh largest shipper owned 530,000 containers.

Container prices have jumped due to increased demand. New 20-feet container cost $2,100 per unit, up 24 percent from an average of $1,700 to $1,800 last year. SM Shipping would need $189 million to fill boxes on its cargo ships.

“We plan to buy second-handed containers to start operation of our major Asia to North America shipping route, and gradually add the rest to other routes,” said an official from SM Shipping. “We are working hard to start operation in March as we planned,” he added.

Source: Pulse