Shipping line Hanjin claims price gouging at US ports

New York

HANJIN Shipping Co and its customers are being asked to pay more than usual to bring freight into US ports, creating a backlog that could keep goods off shelves during the holiday shopping season.

Dockside servicers and transportation companies are demanding higher fees to unload and deliver cargo that was stranded aboard the South Korean shipping line's vessels when it collapsed last month, lawyers said at a hearing on Friday in Newark, New Jersey, bankruptcy court.

Even though creditor protections granted to Hanjin by the US court should have helped it avoid chaos in American ports, logistical problems have persisted and economic repercussions are likely, said lawyer James Van Horn, a restructuring specialist at McGuireWoods LLP, which represents Eastman Chemica…