Because Hanjin, the world’s seventh-largest shipping line, cannot pay ports and terminals to unload, ships filled with merchandise have sat idle for days. As of Sunday, officials said one massive container ship was still drifting 50 miles south of the Long Beach and Los Angeles ports; another ship was anchored at the Port of Long Beach, inside the breakwater; a third was anchored outside the harbor.
Fallout from Hanjin’s decline could have particularly acute effects in Southern California because Hanjin owns a majority stake in Total Terminals International, which operates Long Beach’s largest terminal.
Standing in front of a concrete sign emblazoned “Hanjin Terminal,” Mark Jurisic, a business agent at International Longshore and Warehouse Union, Local 13, which represents longshore workers, assessed the situation bluntly.
“The gates have been shut. Nobody is coming to work,” he said. “Today we would have had 200 to 300 employees here.”
Officials at the Port of Long Beach have said its terminals are not accepting any new Hanjin imports or exports.