Photographer: Wang Jianmin / VCG through Getty Images
Photographer: Wang Jianmin / VCG through Getty Images
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Sailors stranded for months on ships carrying Australian coal off the coast of China are caught between authorities who do not let them unload cargo and buyers who do not let them go.
The worsening relations between Beijing and Canberra have blocked 74 ships, about 8.1 million tons of coal and about 1,480 sailors in Chinese ports, according to an analysis of shipping data by Bloomberg. The national charterer of two of the ships wants them to sail elsewhere to make it easier for exhausted sailors, but so far the merchants who own the goods will not agree.
“It’s the final receiver that didn’t give the green light” for the Jag Anand to sail to another country where it could change crew, said Jan Dieleman, president of Cargill Inc.’s ocean shipping company. The Minneapolis-based company is the original charterer of the ship and the Navios Coral, both anchored at Jingtang Harbor in June, awaiting the unloading of the Australian coal cargo.
Crew Jag Anand told port authorities he was ready to unload when he arrived, and the owner of the bill of lading said the ship must unload its cargo before leaving, according to Dieleman. He declined to identify the final recipient of the cargo, but said that if the ship tried to leave for another country to change crews without their approval, the ship could be arrested and the sailors closed.
“We want to get these people off the ship not only, but take them home,” Dieleman said.
Tangshan Baichi Trading Co. is the recipient of the coal from the two ships, although the company could have later resold the cargo to other end users, according to a person familiar with the problem who asked not to be identified because the information is private. The company is the largest coal importer in the region and owns three coal washing machines, a coking plant and has an investment unit focused on the domestic future of coal and coke, according to its website.
Calls to the company’s office in Tangshan City went unanswered. The General Administration of Customs of China did not immediately answer the questions sent by fax.
Covid-19 controls
Some of the stranded sailors are desperate. China stopped most of the crew changes to stop the spread of Covid-19, and some of the navigators worked for almost 20 months without a break, according to the National Union of Navigators of India.
On Anastasia, another shipwreck, four crew members are being monitored for suicide, according to a report in the Sydney Morning Herald. The Jag Anand crew called for help in a photo distributed by the National Union of Indian Sailors, holding handwritten signs with messages such as “negotiate with the charterer” and “our life is more important than your cargo.”
Left suspended
5.5 million tonnes of Australian coal are stranded off the coast of China for a month or more
Source: Kpler
Australia-China relations have deteriorated steadily this year, with Beijing imposing tariffs on barley and wine imports and also informally restricting coal imports. The state-run newspaper Global Times has reported that the government economic planner appears to be formalizing the ban, allowing power plants to import coal without restrictions, unless it comes from Australia.
Ship diversion to improve seafarers is often reduced in cost, according to Carl Schou, executive director of Wilhelmsen Ship Management, which handles operations for three ships waiting outside Chinese ports. In some cases, shipowners are resistant to diverting ships to replace depleted crews.
“Diverting a ship from China to anywhere costs a lot of money and someone has to pay for it,” he said. “There is a discussion who should pay for this – the owner, the charterer – should be a separate cost? Not many homeowners are willing to take on such a cost right now. “
When asked last month about a ship stranded by Jingtang, China’s foreign ministry blamed a shipper for refusing to let the ship go.
Several ships that have been stranded for months have recently unloaded their Australian coal shipments, according to intelligence firm Kpler, although it is unclear whether deliveries have cleared customs or whether deliveries are kept in storage.
Other commodity owners appear to have sold their coal supplies outside of China. The Aquaknight and GH Harmony ships, which had been waiting outside the August and October ports of Bao’an Shenzhen and Caofeidian without unloading their shipments, recently reported heading for Vietnam and Japan, according to Kpler.
But Australian coal shipments continue to move to China. Earlier this month, the ship Jin Lang departed from the Hay Point terminal in Queensland offshore. His current destination? China’s Zhanjiang Port.
– With the assistance of Alfred Cang, Matt Turner, Winnie Zhu and Martin Ritchie