A Swiss agriculture company has asserted claims against a Turkish-controlled bulker that could be headed for the auction block.
AMS Ameropa filed an intervenor complaint on 21 September in Bank of America's litigation that seized the 35,500-dwt Marine Princess (built 2012). The company is seeking the $3.3m that it said it lost on a subcharter it was unable to fulfil after the Sohtorik Management & Agency-managed ship was arrested.
AMS said the subcharter was fixed in March 2021, the same month Bank of America sued in the US federal court for the Eastern District of Louisiana in a bid to secure more than $7m after the ship's registered owner, Sunset Shipping, missed nearly two dozen loan payments.
It had first taken the Marshall Islands-flagged ship on charter in 2018.
On 9 September, Bank of America filed a motion to have the ship auctioned.
The bank said that no security had been posted to free the ship and that it had spent at least $170,000 in custodial costs.
US District Judge Nannette Brown has not yet issued an order on that motion.
AMS is seeking $2.9m in lost profit, as it stood to make $7,940.62 per day net from the Marine Princess subcharter after fixing it for $17,806.25 per day.
The agriculture firm also wants $274,765 for the value of the bunker fuel on board, $84,421 for overpaid hire paid to Sunset Shipping, $5,307 for pilotage fees and a declaration that Sunset Shipping is liable for any claim brought by the unnamed subcharterer.
The original loan was made by Credit Agricole for $27.7m and refinanced both the Marine Princess and the 35,500-dwt Marine Prince (built 2012).
The registered owners for both ships share an Istanbul address with Sohtorik, and the ship manager's chairman, Emir Sohtorik, is named as the personal guarantor of the loans on documents entered in court.
The company did not immediately return a request for comment.
According to AIS data, the ship is at anchor on the Mississippi River west of New Orleans.
