Seaspan chief Wang sees Hanjin bankruptcy as shipping's Lehman Brothers

In an interview on Bloomberg TV Wang, who is founder, chairman and ceo of Seaspan, likened the impact to shipping and supply chain to that of a nuclear bomb.

“But the fallout from Hanjin Shipping is really like Lehman Brothers to the financial markets. It’s like a huge, huge nuclear bomb that shakes up the supply chain, the cornerstone of globalisation” Wang stated.

“You’re talking about $120bn worth of goods that are stuck on those ships …..there is material impact to the supply chain.”

The bankruptcy of Hanjin Shipping is by far the largest ever experienced by the container shipping sector with world’s seventh largest boxline having 600,000 teu of capacity with the majority of its vessels still stranded around the world.

Seaspan has three containerships on long term lease to Hanjin and had repeatedly rejected attempts by the Korean line to cut charter rates, which were a condition of a part of self-rescue package that it had being trying to put together before it filed for receivership on 31 August.

Read all the background to the Hanjin Shipping bankruptcy on our timeline