Continental Shipping Line is dismissing claims by Euroseas that it terminated the charter of a container ship early to avoid paying hefty hire.
Earlier in February, US-listed Euroseas said it was pursuing legal action against Continental for repudiating its charter of the 1,439-teu Aegean Express (built 1997) as the vessel was completing its scheduled dry-docking.
Continental told TradeWinds that it was compelled to terminate the charter because the shipyard spell lasted far beyond what was agreed to.
Continental said that despite an express agreement in the charterparty that the vessel would not be dry-docked during the charter, it agreed that the owner could put it into dry dock in October 2022 for between 25 and 30 days.
However, Continental said the Aegean Express’ spell in dry dock lasted a lot longer than the agreed time.
“The vessel remained in dry dock until 17 January 2023. When denied of the use of the vessel, and with no firm news as to when it would resume service, Continental declared that owners were in breach of and terminated the charterparty,” the Singapore-based regional liner player said.
Responding to Continental’s claims, Euroseas chairman Aristides Pittas acknowledged that the Aegean Express’ dry-docking lasted much longer than originally envisaged, but claimed the dry-docking was expressly allowed by the charterparty and there was no provision limiting its duration.
“All notices necessary were given according to the charterparty,” he said.
“The fact is that Continental benefited from the delay, as they avoided paying the high $41,000-per-day charter for the extended dry-dock period and then repudiated the charter as they don’t want to pay this high rate for the remaining 25 months of the charter.”
Continental, which operates a liner service between Singapore and Myanmar, said it is computing its losses and will present its claim “at the appropriate juncture” when it has found a replacement vessel.
The company previously owned a sizeable fleet of feeder-size container ships, but sold them off several years back, ahead of a planned move into larger size sectors. It currently does not own any tonnage and relies on chartered ships.
