Session details

The Hanjin collapse at the end of August 2016 left 147 vessels stranded around the world, unable to enter port. Hanjin was the latest in a series of high-profile shipping insolvencies, with OW Bunker in November 2014 and Copenship, STX and Swiber in between. Meanwhile, we are seeing high levels of consolidation activity as the shipping industry seeks to restructure businesses and financing. We will look at the immediate problems arising for stakeholders when a shipping business announces that it will not be paying the bills, including threat of arrest and refusal of access to vessels. How are debtors and creditors best advised? How can charters be terminated and cargo returned or compensated for, and to what extent will insurance respond? How is business affected when the original financiers sell their non performing loans to investors? We will explore the cross-border insolvency issues and application of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Model Law to seek to achieve ‘modified universalism’, and we will hear about Hanjin's recognition process in Australia and cover other jurisdictions such as Singapore, South Korea, Malaysia and the US.