Foreign Ship Comes Under Hammer in Nanjing

Home>>Business

Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, December 19, 2001

Foreign Ship Comes Under Hammer in Nanjing

Filoktitis, a 40,000-ton cargo ship of Blueshell Shipping Ltd of Cyprus anchored in Nanjing Port, was auctioned Tuesday according to an order by Wuhan Maritime Court in Central China's Hubei Province. After 58 times of bids by five buyers, Shanghai Yuheng Power Station Valve Company, Ltd. finally won the bid at the price of US$960,000. It is the first time for the Chinese maritime court to accept a case dealing with ship auctions with both parties involved as overseas persons after China's accession of the WTO.

'Blueshell Shipping' Taken to Court

Blueshell Shipping Ltd of Cyprus, the former owner of the 40,000-ton steel-made cargo ship, was taken to court by the United Kingdom Mutual Steam Ship Assurance Association (Bermuda), which said that the accused had failed to pay an insurance premium of US$750,000 by October this year.

The court (administration covers five provinces and one municipal city in Yangtze River valley) detained "Filoktitis", the ship that was unloading in Nanjing in East China's Jiangsu Province, and asked the accused to deposit a guarantee of US$1 million. After the accused failed to do so, the court ordered in October that the ship be sold by auction in accordance with article 30 of "Special Procedures Law of Admiralty Proceedings of the People's Republic of China".

Differences Between Auctions

It is learnt that there are three differences between this auction with the original auction of foreign ships:

First, different legal foundation applied.

Former cases based on related judicial explanation by the Supreme People's Court. This case, coming up after the promulgation of "Special Procedures Law of Admiralty Proceedings of the People's Republic of China", becomes the first one handled in accordance with the newly issued Law. Meanwhile, Auction of the People's Republic of China also applied to it.

Second, different personnel composed the Auction Committee.

In addition to executive official of the court and auditors of China Classification Society (CCS) who are supposed to be the members of the committee for former cases, the auctioneer was also added into the member list.

Third, higher transparency.

Former cases adopted floor price system with the reserve price closed. If bidding price failed to reach the level of reserve price, the auction will be replaced by realization of property only to be held privately. The case of Filoktitis adopted floor price system instead. Bidders can compete openly after the floor price is published. The one offers the highest price will become the buyer.

Several media had published the announcement of the auction inside or outside China for many times one month before the auction was held.

Ship's Name: Filoktitis
Nationality	Cypriot	Call Sign	P 3gr3	Type	Bulk C
Registry Limassol Official No: 708755
Displacement: 49277m/T		Dead Weight: 40200m/T
Length Overall	184.758m	Length Registry	176.92m	L.B.P	173.2m
Moulded Breadth	27.6m	Moulded Depth	18.5m	Gross Tonnage	25465m/T
Net Tnnage	11631 M/T		Light Ship	9077m/T
Fresh Water Allowance: 277mm			Classification: N.K,K Ns * Mns*

Buiders: Sanoyasu Dockyard, Co. Ltd, Misushima Kurashki, Japan
Owners	Blueshell Shipping Ltd
Tear Build: 1978	Main Engine: Kawasaki-M.A.N-12v 52/55a
Max.Continuous Rating	12660ps*450rpm	Service Con.Rating	11390ps*434rpm
Service Speed:About 15 Knots At 11390 Bhp
Fuel Oil Consumption of M.E41.6 M/Tper24 Hours
Last Dry DockingAugust/2000,Hamburg-Germany, by Blohm+Voss

Click Here for the Announcement of Auction by Wuhan Maritime Court

By PD Online staff member Du Minghua

Foreign Ships Bumped in Dalian, Leaked Oil not Cause Massive Sea Pollution

China Starts Trial Auction of Stock Ownership

China's Largest Assets Auction to Be Held