A small handy blocked at Odesa port for more than seven months has found a ticket out of the war-torn country after its owners and charterers settled the dispute preventing its departure.
The 14,200-dwt Sea Luck (built 1999) will sail on 9 October to the nearby port of Chornomorsk where it will load about 13,500 tons of wheat to be carried to Algeria, the vessel’s managers FGM Chartering told TradeWinds in an e-mail.
Voyages out of Ukraine have not been unusual since a UN-led safe passage scheme for grain shipments got up and running in August.
The Sea Luck, however, couldn’t count on UN protection because it was carrying steel coils.
FGM managers had pleaded with charterers Fayette International Holdings to allow them to discharge the steel coils, so the ship could look around for a grain cargo.
Charterers, however, were refusing to play ball, citing insurance concerns.
FGM Chartering reacted by going public with the case and launching arbitration procedures in the UK.
Just before the arbitration deadline expired, the two parties reached a compromise that allows for the dispute to be resolved.
According to FGM, charterers and shippers provided Odesa port with the necessary permission for a discharge and also agreed to cover related expenses.
On the other hand, owners agreed to drop any demurrage claims.
“Owners considered it was a wise option to drop hands,” FGM managing director Kefah Fahl said in the e-mail to TradeWinds.
The owners’ priority had always been to free the ship and her crew and avoid time-consuming legal procedures, Fahl added.
The Sea Luck had begun loading its steel coil cargo in Odesa on 23 February, on the eve of Russia’s invasion.
By the time Ukrainian ports shut down due to the conflict, about 3,500 tons of the material had been loaded on the ship — around a quarter of the cargo its owners had agreed to transport.
FGM had been planning to invoke a “Voyawar 1993” clause in their charterparty. This allows shipowners to back down from a charter in case of perceived war risk at any time before the vessel commences loading.
