Winland Shipping has seen one of its supramax bulkers re-arrested in Singapore under an existing claim against the shipowner. The Hong Kong-flagged 56,928-dwt MV Rui Lee (built 2011) was detained on Monday on the orders of lawyers from Allen & Gledhill.
The law firm is believed to be acting on behalf of the Dalian-based shipowner’s mortgage holder China Merchants Bank (CMB). On that occasion Odessa-based charterer Milestone Shipping had the ship stopped over a series of payment disputes.
Under the caveat procedure, filed by Allen & Gledhill, CMB essentially became second-in-line to arrest the vessel after Milestone. The bank action freezes one of a pair of supramaxes that were funded under a $37m credit facility from CMB, which are now Winland’s two main remaining assets. In February Bombay High Court arrested the ship after Singapore’s Seabridge Bunkering Pte filed a lawsuit over unpaid dues for bunkers. The ship was later released after the vessel’s owner and the Singaporean company reached an out-of-court settlement and the owner paid $49,184 to the bunker supplier.