Prohibited transits

A commercial manager took over a newly built container ship from a Chinese shipyard and arranged a first charter to a Korean company.  The charter called for the ship to proceed to load her first cargo at Keelung, Taiwan and the commercial manager ordered the master to proceed to that port. The ship was arrested on arrival at Keelung because Taiwanese law prohibits ships from sailing to Taiwan direct from China whether loaded or in ballast.  The owners were fined US$98,000, which they recovered from the commercial manager.

In another case, a pool manager made a similar mistake when he fixed a voyage charter which called for a VLCC to discharge at the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP). The head charterparty contained an exclusion of trading to the United States. Unfortunately, the tanker was already loaded and underway before  it was realised she could not enter US waters. Another VLCC had to be chartered and a ship-to-ship transfer took place outside US waters.  The cost of the transhipment, charter hire, insurance,  etc. was US$270,000, which the owner claimed from the pool manager.