Beatrix Enterprises has become the latest Greek shipping company to see a vessel under its control arrested in Singapore.

Its 18,300-dwt bulker Eagle (built 2001) has been seized at the request of Sino Faith Shipping over a charter dispute.

A source close to Zora Shipping, the registered owners of the Eagle, which is managed technically and commercially by Beatrix, told TradeWinds that Sino Faith had fixed the ship on a voyage charter to carry a cargo to be loaded in Brazil.

The source claimed that Sino Faith gave notice it was cancelling the charter via email on 3 August because the Brazilian cargo failed to materialise.

Shortly after it asked that the charter be amended to load a cargo in Chile.

Zora, based on the previous email, considered the original charter as having been cancelled, and therefore believes it is not responsible for any damages and losses incurred by Sino Faith in relation to its Chilean cargo.

Elusive entity

Sino Faith proved to be too elusive an entity to reach. Although registered in Singapore, it has no listed phone number and shares an address with dozens of brass-plate companies.

TradeWinds understands that the company, which is described in Singapore corporate registers as a provider of shipping services, is an offshore entity for Chinese interests.

A senior manager at Beatrix said the Eagle was on time charter to a "first-class charterer" at the time of its arrest but declined to comment further due to it being an ongoing legal matter.

"It is all in the hands of the lawyers now," he said.

Keeping the Eagle company in Singapore's Eastern Anchorage are two arrested Greek-controlled tankers.

Eletson Corp's 69,400-dwt tanker Strofades (built 2006) was arrested by China's CSIC Leasing over a financing deal that went wrong.

More recently, Hermes Marine Management-controlled 320,000-dwt tanker Chloe V (built 2011) was seized by charterer Koch Industries over a dispute involving a defective scrubber.

The only other ships that were under arrest in Singapore on Friday were five Xihe Holdings tankers.