South Korean shipping giant Hanjin filed for bankruptcy protect and stopped accepting new cargo earlier this week, causing "a ripple effect throughout the global supply chain".

The company's assets are frozen, and it can't pay any of its bills or fees.  Ships from China to Canada are marooned outside the great ports of the Pacific because tugboat pilots or stevedores have no guarantees they would be they paid.  Three Hanjin container ships, ranging from about 700 feet to 1,100 feet long, were either drifting offshore or were anchored away from terminals at the Port of Long Beach and the Port of Los Angeles in Southern California. 

The Korea International Trade Association said that ten Hanjin vessels in China have been either seized or were expected to seized. Creditors in Singapore seized a Hanjin ship earlier this week.

The South Korean bankruptcy court is expediting proceedings to attempt to rehabilitate the carrier - which would allow Hanjin to take legal action in other countries to keep its ships and other assets from being seized.  But large carriers rarely, if ever, are able to bounce back from collapse, and liquidation of assets is likely.  "There is a loss of faith among customers," said Rahul Kapoor, a director at maritime consultancy Drewry Financial Research Services,  "It's very unlikely Hanjin can come back from the ashes," he added.

So, you've heard that expression "when America sneezes, the world catches a cold"?  Hanjin, the world's seventh-largest cargo carrier, represents eight percent of the Asian shipping coming into the US.  The bankruptcy is creating "a ripple effect throughout the global supply chain" that could harm the US economy and consumers, according to the US National Retail Association. 

"There (are) millions of dollars' worth of merchandise that needs to be on store shelves that could be impacted by this," said the association's vice president for supply chain and customs policy Jonathan Gold,.  "Some of it is sitting in Asia waiting to be loaded on ships," he added, "some is already aboard ships out on the ocean and some is sitting on US docks waiting to be picked up."

Other carriers hiked the price of shipping a container from China to the US by as much as 50 percent after Hanjin's bankruptcy.