Like their rivals across the East China Sea, South Korean carriers Hanjin Shipping and Hyundai Merchant Marine have experienced severe trading difficulties and both posted massive losses in 2013.

Indeed, this was the third consecutive year of red ink-stained results produced by Hanjin and HMM, and this combination of weak fundamentals and poor financial health is having an increasingly adverse affect on their all-important credit ratings.

Moreover, in newly-published reports from Drewry Financial Research Services, the transport consultant is not optimistic about the prospects of profitability for either South Korean carrier this year or the next, with a return to the black “unlikely” before 2016 for HMM and a year later for its compatriot carrier.

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