Hanjin Shipping secures $36 million from group chairman

SEOUL (Reuters) – The chairman of Hanjin Group transferred 40 billion won ($36 million) to Hanjin Shipping on Tuesday to help unload cargo stranded on the troubled shipper's vessels, a spokesman said, but regulators warned securing further funds could take "considerable time."

Hanjin Group, the parent of Hanjin Shipping, pledged last week to raise 100 billion won to help rescue cargo in the wake of the collapse of the world's seventh-biggest container shipper, including the 40 billion won from Chairman Cho Yang-ho.

Around $14 billion of cargo has been tied up globally as ports, tugboat operators and cargo handling firms worried about being paid refused to work for Hanjin, which filed for receivership in a Seoul court early this month.

Korean Air, the top shareholder of Hanjin Shipping, on Saturday approved a plan to provide a loan of 60 billion won, conditional on the shipper providing its stake in Los Angeles' Long Beach Terminal as collateral.

It may take "considerable time" for Korean Air to provide the loans for Hanjin Shipping, South Korea's top financial regulator said, according to a regulatory official at the scene.

"It is being reviewed whether it is possible to secure the funding" from Korean Air, Financial Services Commission Chairman Dim Jong-yong said in a meeting with the ruling party, a FSC official said.

On Monday, Choi Eun-young, a former chairwoman of Hanjin Shipping, pledged to provide $9-million in private funds "within days."

Truckers began moving freight from the Hanjin Greece, one of roughly a dozen of the company's ships destined for the US West Coast, out of the port of Long Beach on Monday, following a US bankruptcy court's grant of protection.