Seattle — American Seafoods Group, whose fleet of big, blue-and-white catcher-processor ships harvests more fish than any other U.S. company, may soon default on some of its massive debt as it struggles with low prices and inadequate cash flow.
American Seafoods employs about 1,000, according to its website, and is based near Pike Place Market. Its six factory trawlers often fish in the Bering Sea, where American Seafoods has about 45 percent of the quota for at-sea harvesting of pollock; in Seattle they dock at Terminal 91 near Magnolia.
The company is laboring under more than $900 million in estimated debt, and has been highly leveraged for at least a decade. The debts were piled up when prices were strong for the pollock and Pacific hake it catches.
But in recent years tilapia and catfish have challenged pollock’s role as the dominant raw material for fish sticks, surimi and other products. Meanwhile, demand from the important Japanese market has weakened and the yen has plunged in value.
