A US shipper is looking to have a Chinese-owned bulker condemned and sold after someone allegedly smoking on board caused a fire, destroying its plywood cargo.
Direct Link International is one of three companies suing the 38,700-dwt Sea Train (built 2021), its ownership interests and terminal operator Cooper/Ports America in US federal court seeking a total of $3.1m stemming from the fire, which broke out while the ship was docked in Houston last year.
Oregon-based Direct Link said the fire started and spread due to “allowing smoking on board, not enforcing rules against smoking on board, and actually smoking on board”.
“The fire and resulting efforts to extinguish the fire caused damage to the cargo and rendered it worthless, with negligible salvage value that does not reduce the claim against defendants,” the company’s Houston-based attorney David Toy said in the company’s complaint.
Direct Link filed suit on 16 January in the Southern District of Texas.
It said on 11 November 2021 that 200 crates of plywood were loaded at Qingdao for shipment to Houston, and that after the ship docked, but before the cargo was discharged, the fire broke out.
It names the Sea Train as a defendant, along with registered owner and manager China's Sea Bridge Shipping Management, charterer Hongkong New Silk Road Shipping and Cooper/Ports America, a US company providing stevedoring operations when the bulker was in Houston.
It requests the ship be arrested, condemned and sold to cover its $675,000 in damages.
The two other lawsuits come from Innovation Products and RLI Insurance, which insured cargo for Missouri firm Central Planet.
Both companies filed suit in both the Southern District of New York and the Southern District of Texas, looking to attach property in both jurisdictions.
RLI alleges it is owed $1.6m and Innovation over $827,000. Like Direct Link, both companies were shipping plywood from China to Houston.
Their lawsuits are less detailed than Direct Link’s, but both companies allege a fire broke out in the Sea Train’s third hold on 22 January, 2022 while in Houston and allege Cooper/Ports America failed to safely perform stevedoring operations leading to the loss of cargo.
Sea Bridge Shipping Management, Hongkong New Silk Road and Cooper/Ports America did not return requests for comment.
As it stands, the Sea Train has been moored in New Orleans since 19 January after having called on Houston between 13 January and 17 January following a transpacific voyage.
