Fledgling Vietnamese bulker operator NHK Shipping has lost the use of one of its four ships during its first year in business, and suspects fraud on the part of an Indian charterer.
The 28,200-dwt Charlene (built 1996), remains at Port Sudan under arrest by the cargo receiver, an affiliate of Indian commodities trader Rika Global Impex, which arrested the ship in August last year with a damage claim greater than its resale value.
The ship had just arrived from Mumbai with a cargo of bagged sugar. AIS records show the vessel arriving laden at Port Sudan on 30 August.
An operational source with information about the dispute said Rika Global Impex’s claim is in the range of $15m. VesselsValue estimates the Charlene to be worth $6.01m.
The arresting party told a Sudanese court that the Charlene’s cargo was spoiled by moisture and it placed blame with the shipowner.
But NHK rejects the claim, and a company official has told TradeWinds that cargo surveyors found no evidence that seawater had entered the holds, either in the form of traces of chlorides in the sugar cargo or that the hold was not watertight.
TradeWinds has contacted Rika Global Impex for comment.
NHK executive LK Tuan told TradeWinds that the company expects to initiate arbitration over the matter in Singapore soon.
The fleet of Haiphong-based NHK consists of veteran vessels formerly in the fleet of Vietnam’s Tan Binh Shipping, all acquired last year by US-Vietnamese shipowner HN Global Shipping. The three handies and one supramax have an average age of 23 years.
Reference sources list the owner of HN Global as Hau Minh Nguyen of Boston.
Tuan told TradeWinds that NHK and its lawyers are suspicious of fraud in the case and said he believes the charterer, shipper and receiver are all part of the same group.
“The claim was rejected by us [and the] vessel’s P&I because not only [was there] no evidence of chloride in cargo samples test, but also all holds/hatches were tight during the voyage,” Tuan wrote in an email statement, and added that the cargo surveyor’s investigation indicated that the damage was inherent in the cargo.
NHK is represented in the arrest case by its P&I club, the West of England. A spokesman said in a statement to TradeWinds: “The club has been working closely with its members and the local authorities to have the cargo of sugar discharged in Port Sudan. Efforts in that regard continue.”
Tuan told TradeWinds that the company trades worldwide, but its focus is on Asia. Despite one ship being out of action for more than four months, he said the company is searching for more tonnage.
NHK’s vessels are mostly crewed by Vietnamese nationals but TradeWinds has separately reported on a labour dispute involving Indian cadets, who recently served on the Charlene and were recruited by Mumbai-based crewing agency Marinezone Shipping Services.
The cadets have presented documentation to the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) in support of their claim that they paid crewing agents hefty fees for their jobs and also for sea-service certification. Marinezone and NHK have rejected the allegations.
