Seoul, Feb 17 (IANS): South Korea's largest shipping company, Hanjin Shipping Co Ltd, was officially declared bankrupt by a local court on Friday, a media report said.

This ended its 40 years of operations after its financial woes shook the international freight markets in September 2016, Efe news reported.

Hanjin, the world's seventh largest shipping company, declared the suspension of payments on August 31, 2016, and was subsequently put under judicial administration after a court rejected its restructuring plan.

The Seoul Central District Court in February announced the liquidation of most of the company's assets, including all of its transportation routes, 141 container ships and freighters, and ended the debt repayment process.

The bankruptcy of the company caused almost all international ports to deny its ships access, since it could not pay the fees, which seriously disrupted the traffic of goods by sea for several weeks.

The South Korean shipping company used to deliver shipments to more than 90 major ports and from there to some 6,000 destinations worldwide.