SOUTH KOREA’S financially troubled Hanjin Shipping Co. will take further legal action in countries beyond the United States to protect its ships and other assets from being seized by creditors.

    Hanjin, the world’s seventh-largest container operator by capacity, plans to file for court protection in about 10 countries, including Canada, Germany and Britain, this week, South Korea’s Financial Services Commission said yesterday.

    The troubled shipping line aims to expand the scope of its court protection as soon as possible, with plans to pursue legal action in as many as 43 countries, according to the financial regulator.

    A Hanjin spokeswoman said the company will make its best effort to prevent ship seizures and protect assets abroad.

    The measure is aimed at “minimizing the cases where Hanjin Shipping’s vessels are being seized in foreign countries,” South Korea’s government said in a statement jointly released by several ministries and commissions.

    Hanjin sought bankruptcy protection in the United States and South Korea last week.

    With its assets frozen, its ships are being refused permission to offload or take on containers at ports worldwide, out of concern tugboat pilots or stevedores wouldn’t be paid.

    The South Korean giant represents nearly 8 percent of the trans-Pacific trade volume for the U.S. market, and with Hanjin’s container ships marooned offshore, major retailers were scrambling to work out contingency plans to get their merchandise into stores.

    The South Korean Government said it is preparing to have rival Hyundai Merchant Marine buy out Hanjin’s vessels. Yim Jong-yong, the Financial Services Commission’s chairman, pushed Hanjin to urgently resolve problems over freight stranded at sea, the Yonhap News Agency reported.

    Hanjin is currently the largest shipping company in South Korea, operating approximately 60 regular lines worldwide, with 140 container or bulk vessels, according to court papers. It transports over 100 million tons of cargo a year.

    Its failure would be the largest in the history of the container-shipping industry, dwarfing all previous carrier bankruptcies. Since Hanjin called in the bankruptcy lawyers, the refusal of ports to handle its cargo has stranded over 50 ships at sea and more than half a million containers, according to the firm. (SD-Agencies)