Clipper Bulk Shipping has asked a judge to seize a cargo controlled by Italy’s Marinter Shipping Agency after a voyage charter deal collapsed over an allegedly bad odour.
The Danish bulker operator filed a lawsuit in a US federal court against Marinter and requested the seizure of a cargo on Shenzhen Financial Leasing’s 33,400-dwt bulker Orcinus (built 2010), court records show.
Arbitration is also pending in London over Clipper’s allegations of breach of contract.
The dispute centres on Naples-based Marinter’s voyage charter of another vessel — the 40,000-dwt bulker Norse Mobile (built 2022).
Clipper signed a deal in December to charter the handymax bulker, which is ultimately owned by Hakuyo Kisen Kaisha of Japan, to Marinter to move 18,000 tonnes of wheat from Houston to Ortona, Italy. Italy’s Banchero Costa acted as the shipbroker on the deal, records show.
But on the day that the ship arrived at the Texas port to load the cargo, the Hansen-Mueller Grain Elevator was halted due to a fire at the terminal.
According to papers filed by Clipper’s lawyers at law firm Chalos & Co, the terminal issued a notice of force majeure, which means events beyond its control prevented it from fulfilling contractual obligations.
The grain elevator was back in operation 18 days later, but Marinter refused to load the cargo because the silos nearest to the fire had a “commercially objectionable” odour, according to the lawsuit.
However, Clipper Bulk’s lawyers said the fire affected just three of the terminal’s 650 grain silos.
“As the fire affecting only three silos plainly did not constitute a force majeure event, laytime should run as normal under the charterparty,” Chalos & Co’s Briton Sparkman wrote.
Marinter, an agent, broker and vessel operator, could not be immediately reached for comment.
Clipper alleged it suffered $1.3m from the refusal to load the cargo, with interest and costs leading to a total claim of $1.65m in damages.
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