Thousands of empty shipping containers, stranded in Southern California after the bankruptcy of South Korean ocean carrier Hanjin Shipping Co., may now have a way to get back to Asia, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The Port of Long Beach and Total Terminals International LLC (TTI) — which runs port terminals for Hanjin, including its Southern California operation in Long Beach — have arranged for a container ship to remove 4,300 containers that have been sitting in container yards and warehouse lots since the bankruptcy filing. Port officials said on Thursday that they expect the ship to arrive in the next several days. TTI will load containers onto the ship at cost and the port has agreed to waive wharfage fees. For weeks after Hanjin entered bankruptcy proceedings, most major West Coast ports were turning away loaded and empty Asia-bound containers owned or leased by Hanjin. Freight-handling businesses scrambled to rebook outbound loads on other carriers, but most of the empty containers stayed put.
