Transatlantica Commodities has fired back at Hanwin Shipping in a wide-ranging dispute over a November 2021 cargo fire.
The Singaporean outfit sought in July to secure security for its allegations that Hanwin wrongly loaded and delayed the 40,256-dwt bulker TAC Imola (built 2021), costing it $4.6m, and get the Chinese operator’s Massachusetts federal lawsuit thrown out.
Last week, Judge Rya Zobel ordered Hanwin to pay just under $1m in security on top of the $3.4m already paid but refused to dismiss the lawsuit.
Hanwin and Transatlantica have locked horns in US federal courts in Maryland, Texas and New Jersey as well as in Panama and arbitration in London after a load of plywood caught fire during a voyage from Shanghai to Baltimore on the Transatlantica-owned and Hanwin-chartered ship late last year.
The blaze caused a three-month diversion to South Korea, another to the port of Newark and a third to a port in upstate New York new Albany.
Hanwin argues that Transatlantica wrongly loaded the cargo, causing the fire, while Transatlantica argues Hanwin delayed the ship and that it refused to pay to unload the cargo in Baltimore.
In Maryland and Texas, Transatlantica sued to seize deposits held in those jurisdictions, while bunkers were seized in New Jersey, Panama and Massachusetts.
In the Massachusetts case, the company argued it had already sold the bunkers to a company called Millinery Shipping and that the property attachment should be vacated.
In a statement to TradeWinds, Hanwin attorney Bruce Paulsen of Seward & Kissel said the company was considering its next move.
“We believe the decision as to counter security is incorrect and Hanwin is considering its options,” he said.
Transatlantica’s attorneys did not return a request for comment.
Paulsen represents Hanwin along with fellow Seward & Kissel attorney Brian Maloney, Christopher McNally of Sayer Regan & Thayer of Rhode Island and Todd Lochner of the Lochner Law Firm of Maryland.
Transatlantica is represented by Samuel Blatchley of Eckland & Blando of Boston and Stephen Simms of Simms Showers in Baltimore in the Massachusetts lawsuit.
