When the story of Hanjin’s dying first broke on the cease of final month, the winning mood become that even though monetary conditions for the shipping enterprise have been obviously very difficult, Hanjin Shipping—that is part of the Hanjin Group, one among South Korea’s family-owned chaebols—suffered from a few unique problems function of that tricky a part of Korean society; as an instance, the shipping challenge turned into headed for a time by means of a granddaughter of Hanjin’s founder, now not because she had any training or experience inside the maritime business, but because she turned into the closest to be had relative to fill the placement.
As the tale has evolved, but, the consensus has steadily shifted to a perception that Hanjin may be the shipping industry’s “Lehman moment,” and best the primary of the huge companies to fall. Even Maersk Lines, the sector’s largest and arguably healthiest transport enterprise, is in financial trouble; in August it stated that its 2d-region income had reached $151 million, which before everything seemed to be a vibrant spot in an otherwise gloomy photograph of the enterprise, however become considered a catastrophe by way of Maersk; in the same area a 12 months earlier, Maersk recorded a $1.1 billion earnings, which means that for August this 12 months its earnings had plummeted by using an unprecedented 98 percentage.