(Hong Kong, 15 September 2016) Since the filing for receivership by Hanjin Shipping at Seoul District Court on 31 August 2016, Hongkong International Terminals Limited (HIT) has, without delay, set up a dedicated team and provided emergency services to assist shippers and forwarders to efficiently retrieve Hanjin containers. HIT has so far helped affected parties to retrieve more than 1,500 Hanjin containers, with approximately 400 inbound and outbound containers awaiting handling.

Given that shippers and forwarders do not have any contractual relationship with HIT, affected parties should in the first instance liaise with Hanjin Shipping to retrieve their containers. However, considering the serious time delays and material financial risks involved for the affected parties, HIT has offered special arrangements to minimise the impact to shippers and forwarders, and to assist the logistics industry to get through this difficult time.

Representatives from the logistics industry, the Transport and Housing Bureau, and the member for the Legislative Council's Transport constituency held a meeting yesterday to follow up on the Hanjin incident. HIT’s representative clearly stated in the meeting that HIT has put in place extra resources to provide emergency services to respond to the Hanjin incident. A dedicated team of 70 members has worked relentlessly in the past two weeks to offer shippers and forwarders a convenient and express service to retrieve their Hanjin containers or make alternative carriage arrangements. To facilitate the understanding of those who were present at the meeting, HIT has already released the handling details on the retrieval and return of Hanjin containers.

The Hong Kong container terminals are renowned for their high service standards. However, HIT regrets that individual parties in the logistics industry have repeatedly released erroneous messages and played down Hong Kong's role as an international shipping centre.