Impounded Liberian-flagged container vessel leaves Ctg port after 11 days

The Liberian-flagged vessel carrying export containers left Chittagong port for Colombo today following a High Court order after being kept impounded for the last eleven days at the outer anchorage of the port.

The authorities seized the vessel MSC Kymea on July 20 immediate before it was about to leave a jetty with 1084 TEUs export laden containers following the HC order after a local importer filed an admiralty suit against the vessel and 13 other people centring a dispute over some cargo provided by a foreign supplier.

Uncertainty prevails over timely reaching of the export cargoes to the destination as the cargoes already missed two connecting mother vessels from the transhipment port of Colombo as the vessel got stranded.

Ajmir Hossain Chowdhury, head of operations and logistics of the ship's local agent MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company, Bangladesh, said the Liberian flagged vessel MSC Kymea left the outer anchorage at around 4:00pm after getting port clearance after obtaining bail order from the High Court.

The High Court on Friday awarded the bail to the vessel after the ship's Geneva-based owning company Mediterranean Shipping Company SA through the ship's international P&I (protection and indemnity) Club deposited a bank guarantee of Tk 2.61 crore, the L/C value claimed by the plaintiff.  

Sources said a Dhaka-based importer RB Con-Cast and Rerolling Mills (Pvt) filed the admiralty suit.

According to the case statement, the importer signed a contract with UK-based supplier SRP World Limited on February 4 this year to import 500 tonnes of heavy melting scrap.

MSC Kymea arrived at the port on July 17 with the scrap in 23 containers but the importer was unable to receive the goods.

This was because the name of Chattogram-based HM Steel Industry was in the import document import general manifest (IGM) as the importer of the goods instead of RB Con-Cast and re-rolling Mills, the case statement said.

According to the shipping agent, the supplier SRP World gave them document mentioning HM Steel as the importer.

The shipping agent's head of operations Ajmir said they came to know later that though RB Con-cast and Rerolling Mills opened L/C due to a discrepancy in the L/C documents the supplier sent the goods to another firm.

Though the vessel had nothing to do with the issue the admiralty suit was filed against it among other defendants and so the vessel got stranded, he said.

The ship's owning firm had to bear an additional operating cost of around $20 thousand per day for the ship's overstay here, he said.

Moreover, shipment of the export cargoes mostly readymade garment products onboard the vessel got delayed, said Hossain adding that the export cargoes already has missed two connecting mother vessels from the transhipment port of Colombo.