Two companies linked to China's Zhangjiagang Oceanicwit Shipping have asked the High Court of Singapore to enforce a purchase deal for open-hatch bulker whose delivery, they allege, was subject to delay.
The details of the request by Morning Swan Shipping and Dina Ocean Shipping, over their October 2017 purchase for the 30,800-dwt Alkar Trust (built 1997) for $3.87m, emerged after TradeWinds reported last week that they had seized the vessel.
VesselsValue currently values the Alkar Trust at $4.92m, while Maritime Strategies International estimates the ship is now worth $4.2m to $5.1m.
The legal action taken against the ship appears to have resulted in a resolution of the dispute as the Alkar Trust was released from arrest on Monday morning.
Records show that the deal to sell the ship resulted in a lengthy ordeal. In a copy of the sales contract seen by TradeWinds, Morning Swan nominated single-ship entity Dina Ocean Shipping as the official buyer, while Zhangjiagang Oceanicwit Shipping was listed as its future operator.
The seller was listed as Ocean Trust Marshall, although at the time of the sale the ship was being operated by Negmar Denizcilik.
According to the sales contract, Ocean Trust Marshall was to hand over the vessel in Singapore by 25 December 2017 at the latest.
Court records show that in late November, Ocean Trust Marshall asked to extend the delivery date to 31 January 2018 as the ship had obtained a contract to carry a cargo of white rice from Myanmar to Madagascar. It anticipated that the ship would arrive in Singapore on or about 20 January 2018.
That arrival date came and went as the ship was held up in Toamasina until April due to port congestion and the ship's arrest over a damage claim filed by the cargo receiver. During this period, the buyers agreed to extend the ship's delivery date to 15 March, and then again to 30 April.
The Alkar Trust finally left Madagascar in early April but for reasons not fully explained in court documents, still had 5,000 tonnes of cargo onboard. An attempt to transship this cargo off the Indonesian island of Batam resulted in yet another arrest, this time by local authorities, who claimed that transshipment activities outside port limits was in contravention of the country's regulations.
This dispute was resolved in early August, with the ship finally arriving at a Singaporean anchorage on the evening of 16 August.
Ocean Trust Marshall demanded the next day that the balance of the purchase price be paid, and insisted the buyer take delivery within three working days.
The buyers deemed the short period unacceptable. They requested a full seven days from the time the ship arrived in Singapore, given that previous delivery notices had failed to produce the ship.
The money, the Zhangjiagang Oceanicwit Shipping affiliates claimed in their court affidavit, was not a problem as the full balance was being held in escrow in Singapore. Their main concern was mobilising a team to take over the ship. They claimed to have incurred substantial costs from mobilising crews during other failed delivery notice periods.
When Ocean Trust Marshall responded by saying that the ship may have to move back outside port limits in order to avoid hefty port dues, the buyers had the ship arrested.
The argument they put before the court was that the last extension agreement they signed was for delivery at the end of April, and that date had long come and gone.
Morning Swan representatives and their Singapore-based lawyers could not be reached for comment, while Negmar did not respond to emails sent by TradeWinds.
