A huge claim for damages by Indian charterer Aruna Shipping has come to nothing at the end of arbitration with Overseas Marine Enterprises.
The Greek owner prevailed over Aruna in a hearing at London’s International Dispute Resolution Centre over the January 2021 charter of the 53,600-dwt supramax Leonidas (built 2005).
TradeWinds understands that Overseas Marine no longer regards vessel arrests as a threat.
The charter of the vessel to carry stone chips from Kandla to Chattogram at $14,000 per day was plagued by delays caused by stoppages of the ship’s cranes, a ship arrest by a third party at Chattogram and slow payments of hire.
TradeWinds reported at the time that the charterer and its Dubai-based affiliate JAC Global Shiptrade were pursuing Overseas Marine over claims that the delays caused them to lose about $15.88m worth of business.
But documentation of that claim proved elusive.
“As a result of events at the discharge port it is the [charterer’s] position that it lost a sales contract worth many millions of dollars,” wrote arbitrators Daniella Horton and Alan Oakley. “We have not seen the contract nor any evidence supporting its loss.”
Another question the arbitrators took up was which of the two parties had spoken to the press. Each took the position that the other had done so.
“The [owner] indicated to us in its jurisdiction application of 17 March 2021 that it feared an arrest of the vessel in respect of this claim,” wrote the panel. “On 31 March 2021, an article appeared in the widely circulated maritime publication TradeWinds reporting that the [charterer] and its affiliate JAC Global were pursuing claims for $15.88m and that the [owner] feared the vessel might be arrested.”
But the panel found that Overseas Marine had failed to prove its claim that the charterer had spoken to the press in breach of confidentiality, and noted that no arrest was ever attempted.
The arbitrators awarded the owner some $305,000 in unpaid hire and other damages, and ordered the charterer to pay costs.
Menelaos Nicolaou represented Overseas Marine initially with London law firm Campbell Johnston Clark, but now with Preston Turnbull. He said his client is frustrated not to be able to comment but is bound by the confidentiality of the forum.
“What we can say is that the subject matter of your previous article of 31 March 2021 is no longer a concern,” he said.
Officials of JAC Global, who have previously spoken for Aruna on the dispute, did not immediately respond to an enquiry.
The Indian charterer Aruna Shipping is not related to a Turkish shipowner also called Aruna Shipping.
