A pair of ships were left waiting in port — one for roughly 200 days — earlier this year while a Connecticut commodities trader collapsed.
Triorient spent a chunk of 2020 working to charter ships to bring iron ore from Mexico to China at the same time it defaulted on a $20m line of credit from Wells Fargo, court and arbitration documents show.
The trader owes three shipping companies $6m, while Wells Fargo has sued for another $2.2m.
"There is reason for serious concern about Triorient’s financial condition and its ability to satisfy a final award," arbitrators wrote in a document directing the company to post a $1.6m bond as security for claims against it by Cargill's shipping unit.
While it is unclear what caused Triorient's problems — neither the firm's partners nor attorneys returned requests for comment — it is known that Cargill and CLdN Cobelfret chartered ships to it, according to lawsuits filed in the federal court for the Southern District of New York this month and last.
CLdN Cobelfret, a bulker operator, supplied the 95,700-dwt Lowlands Green (built 2011) in January and Cargill chartered an unnamed ship in February for voyages from the west coast of Mexico to China.
The Cargill Ocean Transportation vessel arrived in early March and stayed there until May, when the charter was terminated.
The Lowlands Green allegedly waited for its cargo until late July before the charter was mutually terminated.
Meanwhile, Wells Fargo attempted to come to an agreement with Triorient over a $20m export line of credit extended in May 2019, according to a lawsuit from the bank filed in Connecticut Superior Court in November.
Agreements in May and June gave Triorient more time to comply with its agreement with the bank while providing Wells Fargo greater assurances.
Wells Fargo said Triorient failed to live up to both agreements, informing the bank in August it intended to wind down the business.
The company also failed to mount a defence in its arbitration proceedings with Cargill and withdrew its legal representative in arbitration with Singapore's PCL (Shipping), a unit of bulker operator Pacific Carriers Ltd.
The PCL dispute arose after Triorient chartered the 28,340-dwt bulker Glorious Sawara (built 2009) in August 2019 to carry cargo from Brazil, which was never loaded.
Panellists from New York's Society of Maritime Arbitrators awarded Cargill $1.5m in damages and sided with CLdN Cobelfret, directing Triorient to post $2.5m in security and enjoined it from transferring any assets until the sum was posted.
In the PCL dispute, Triorient was ordered to pay $1.5m.
Cargill and CLdN Cobelfret sued in the Southern District of New York to enforce their awards, while PCL sued in the federal district court for Connecticut.
In a fourth dispute, Phoenix Bulk Carriers, a subsidiary of US bulker operator Pangaea Logistics Solutions, sued in October to recover more than $523,000 lost when Triorient failed to load cargo in 2016.
Phoenix prevailed and has since made attempts to subpoena financial records from Triorient's partners, Albert Winslow and Juan Facundo Santucci, including financial records from the country clubs where they are members.
Attorneys for Winslow and Santucci said in court papers that the requests are "incredibly broad and improper" as they are not hiding Triorient's assets.
It is unclear whether the company is still operating, as its nameplate has been removed from its office in Darien, Connecticut.
