IN SPITE OF being in receivership since early June STX Pan Ocean has managed to continue operating two short-sea liner services.

The 702-TEU STX Tokyo is retained on its Busan-Japan service, while the chartered 932 TEU Reverence remains on the Incheon-Qingdao service, reports Alphaliner.

It said two STX PO operated ships are the only remaining ships that are active in the STX PO fleet that totalled 22 ships for 41,700 TEU at the beginning of the year. Six other STX PO-owned ships are idle and one 1,815 TEU newbuilding is awaiting delivery in Guangzhou.

In addition, the shipping line also retains slots on several short-sea services covering Korea, Japan and North China on services operated by Namsung, Sinokor, Dongjin Shipping and EAS Datong. However, the report said it is not clear if these services are maintained by STX Pan Ocean itself or by related parties.

All of its long-haul services were suspended in June.

As of September the carrier has only managed to sell one of its owned ships, yet it put several up for sale. The 1,815 TEU STX Hong Kong that was delivered in May from the Guangzhou Wenchong shipyard was sold to Ipsa Capital in July for a reported price of US$17.8 million. It has since been renamed Bindi Ipsa and chartered to Hyundai Merchant Marine for a fixed period of 6-8 months at $7,500 per day.

Back in January, the shipping line had operated a number of intra-Asia services covering North Asia, South East Asia, the Indian Sub-continent, Middle East and Australia.