The $16m-worth of wheat onboard a seized Gourdomichalis brothers ship needs to get moving or risk spoilage, according to documents obtained by TradeWinds.
The wheat, destined for war-torn Yemen, is sitting in the cargo holds of the 52,500-dwt Vigorous (built 2005) in Longview, Washington state. It will probably have to be loaded onto a new ship in another port if it is to get to its destination before going bad, court records show.
The move would require weeks, millions of dollars and a waiver from the federal government.
“If wheat from the US is not stored in the proper condition, it is quickly subject to damage and decay,” said Ghassan Ali Mohd Abbas, general manager of Al-Saeed Trading, which bought the wheat. “It is not easy, financially and logistically, to obtain alternative wheat and to meet the demands of the Yemeni people.”
The Vigorous was attached on 5 December by Pacific Gulf Shipping in an attempt to get companies backed by George and Stathis Gourdomichalis to pay a $22.6m arbitration award won in a 2015 ship abandonment case.
The civil war in Yemen, which began in 2015, has left 20 million of the country’s 29 million people in urgent need of food, according to the World Food Programme. Thousands have died and millions are internally displaced.
Flat bread made from wheat is a staple of the Yemeni diet, but the country depends on imports.
Abbas said in court papers that when Al-Saeed plans a shipment of wheat from the US, it builds in a lead time of up to 75 days, of which 35 to 45 are transit days. That leaves fewer than 30 days on the normal delivery schedule.
Complicating matters is the Port of Longview. According to attorneys for Midstar, which bought the wheat and sold it on, and Al-Saeed, the port is only able to load cargo, but not unload it.
The nearby Port of Portland in Oregon might be able to accommodate such a transfer, but the US Coast Guard would have to be consulted, as the Vigorous’ current draught may not be suitable for the berth.
Regardless, attorneys said the operation to load the cargo onto another vessel would take roughly three weeks and cost $2m.
The ship could move to a third port, but moving it at all could raise issues involving the Jones Act. The Vigorous is flagged in Liberia, not the US. To discharge cargo at another port would require Customs and Border Protection authorisation, which is complicated by the US government shutdown.
A third option, according to Al-Saeed's attorney, Chris Nolan, of Holland & Knight, would be for the Gourdomichalis brothers companies or the ship’s protection and indemnity insurer, the American Club, to post an alternative or substitute security to free the vessel. That possibility has been brought up by Al-Saeed, Midstar and Pacific Gulf in court filings.
Defendants have not disclosed why security has not been posted, although American Club chief executive Joe Hughes has said the insurance mutual is defending its member against “vexatious litigation”.
In the documents, attorneys for Al-Saeed and Midstar supported a motion for a hearing on security for the Vigorous in late December, but that has not yet taken place. However, a hearing on the ship’s attachment was scheduled for this week.
