Collapse regrettable but in pure financial terms became inevitable

The financial collapse of Hanjin Shipping is as potent a symbol yet of the dreadful state of the containership and wider shipping markets.

It may inspire hyperbolic media headlines that “Christmas will have to be cancelled” because all those electronic gizmos from South Korea will never make it to Macy’s.

But it comes as no surprise to anyone in the shipping sector who has watched Hanjin teeter on the brink with gravity-defying debt to equity levels of 600%.

It