More than 1,100 cruisers to fly home
More than 1,100 cruise ship passengers were flown back to Beijing after being stranded on a cruise ship Henna that was detained in South Korea’s Jeju Island by a local court. The HNA Cruises vessel was arrested after a request to the local court had been filed by another company, Jiangsu Shagang Shipping International.
Shagang Shipping is a Hong Kong-registered company that used to be affiliated to Jiangsu Shagang International.
In a written statementa spokesman for Shagang Shipping, said that the Company is concerned about the welfare of the 2,300 passengers and crew caused by the ‘unavoidable but necessary’ arrest of the HNA vessel, M/V ‘Henna’ last week in Jeju in the Republic of Korea. He explained that this resulted as a consequence of HNA’s failure to comply with their contractual obligations, and to settle the 58 million US Dollar plus which they owe to Shagang Shipping.
The cruise ship was made to obtain security for claims, arising under a guarantee, in excess of 58 million US Dollars which will be heard outside of Korea, and against the HNA Group Company Limited, based in Hainan, the parent company of Grand China Shipping which was wound up by the Hong Kong Court in the spring of this year.
According to Navigate response, the dispute arose in 2008 when Shagang Shipping chartered a bulk carrier the DONG-A ASTREA , owned by Dong-A Tankers in Korea, to Grand China Shipping Company Limited, a subsidiary of HNA Group company, for a period of about seven years.
However, Grand China Shipping only paid hire in accordance with the terms of the contract for the first five months and then stopped paying.
Over the course of two years Shagang Shipping was forced to obtain six arbitration awards against Grand China Shipping, and then to enforce the awards in order to get paid. More important, Shagang Shipping still has claims of over 58 million US Dollars against HNA .
Due to their financial circumstances and failure to meet their debts to a number of creditors, Grand China Shipping were wound up by the Hong Kong Court in the spring of this year. Shagang Shipping are now pursuing HNA as HNA made a commitment to guarantee Grand China Shipping’s performance of the charterparty.
The spokesman said that Shagang Shipping would continue to press their claims under the guarantee against HNA.
“HNA Group Company Limited have continued to resist their obligations, whilst hiding behind a very complex corporate structure which prevents creditors from attaching their assets through layers of companies incorporated around the world”.
“As the injured party in this dispute, we were left with no option but to identify and seize an HNA asset, such as the M/V ‘Henna’, which was done extremely efficiently in Jeju last Friday, and we hope this action will bring HNA to their senses so that the parties can finally settle the case.”