The global shipping industry has been grabbing headlines lately, unfortunately for less admirable reasons. As the industry continues to grapple with depressed freight rates due to overcapacity across all shipping segments, continued high bunker prices and the pertinent problem of reduced lending from the traditional ship financiers, bankruptcies are expected to accelerate for the rest of 2012. “It’s amazing to see how both the borrowers and lenders allowed themselves to run out of cash,” commented a restructuring expert at a recent Marine Money conference in Hamburg. Within a span of two weeks, both Berlian Laju Tanker and Humpuss Sea Transport have filed for protection orders from the courts in New York, under Chapter 15 of the United States Bankruptcy Code. The filings would allow both companies to halt legal proceedings in the United States and ensure their vessels can ply safely through ports in the United States without any threat of arrest. In Berlian Laju Tanker’s case, a number of its subsidiaries had already secured protection on March 12, under Section 210(10) of the Singapore Companies Act, thus securing a three-month stay on creditor actions and preventing ships from being impounded in Singapore. The court protection however does not extend beyond Singapore jurisdiction, which led to BLT’s Chapter 15 petition in New York to shield assets within US jurisdiction.