21/07/2025, 10:27 Berge Bulk loses appeal against exporters after charterer goes bust
Bulkers
Berge Bulk loses appeal against exporters
after charterer goes bust
English court jurisdiction denied to Singapore operator in case dating back
to 2019
Berge Bulk has lost an appeal at the English High Court. (Photo: Isle of Man Ship Register)
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21/07/2025, 10:27 Berge Bulk loses appeal against exporters after charterer goes bust
Gary Dixon
TradeWinds correspondent | London
Published 14 July 2025, 20:15
Singapore shipowner Berge Bulk has failed to overturn a 2024 English High Court
ruling denying it a trial in a cargo dispute.
The operator had gone to the Court of Appeal seeking jurisdiction for a hearing in
London in a case against three timber exporters in New Zealand, dating back to
2019.
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The Berge Bulk-operated 38,600-dwt Cosmos Harmony (built 2019) and 39,000-
dwt TS Index (built 2018) were fixed to lift logs by TPT Shipping.
The Court of Appeal said that after the cargoes were discharged, it appears that
Arnav Shipping, the agent at Kandla, India, released them to a company called
Amrose without requiring presentation of the original bills of lading.
A dispute then arose between the consignee and its financial backers, which
arrested vessels and brought claims against the head owners of the ships, alleging
misdelivery under the bill of lading contracts.
This, in turn, resulted in a cascade of claims down through the supply chain.
Amrose was later reckoned to be insolvent. TPT Shipping called in administrators
that same year, ultimately leading to a liquidation process, the court said.
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21/07/2025, 10:27 Berge Bulk loses appeal against exporters after charterer goes bust
Berge Bulk held two letters of indemnity (LoIs) provided to enable cargoes of
timber to be discharged in India without the production of the bills of lading.
The LoIs, which were governed by English law and provided for the jurisdiction
of the English court, were issued by and in the name of TPT Shipping.
Jurisdiction depended on whether there was a good arguable case that the
exporters are liable on the LoIs as TPT’s “undisclosed principals”.
Judge Christopher Hancock held in 2024 that there was not and denied
jurisdiction for a trial.
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The exporters argued that even if there was a good, arguable case that they were
liable as undisclosed principals, there was no serious question to be tried on the
merits, because Berge Bulk had made a binding election to seek a remedy against
TPT Shipping.
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21/07/2025, 10:27 Berge Bulk loses appeal against exporters after charterer goes bust
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They argued that Berge Bulk’s right to claim against them had been extinguished
as a result of the acceptance of its claim by TPT Shipping’s liquidators.
The sale and marketing of logs for export was carried out by a company called
TPT Forests, which acted as the agent of the exporters.
That included the chartering of vessels for the carriage of logs from New Zealand
to export markets.
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“There is, therefore, no doubt that before TPT Shipping came onto the scene, the
exporters were the principals of Forests under charterparties concluded in the
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21/07/2025, 10:27 Berge Bulk loses appeal against exporters after charterer goes bust
name of Forests, apparently without disclosure to the shipowners that Forests
was acting as an agent,” appeals judge Stephen Males said.
However, in 2004, the TPT Group, of which Forests was a part, decided that a new
company should be established to undertake the chartering of vessels. This was
TPT Shipping.
A letter sent from Forests to one of the exporters made it clear that the risks
inherent in chartering vessels would be retained by TPT Shipping.
The appeals judges backed the 2024 decision. Berge Bulk declined to comment.
(Copyright)
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Published 14 July 2025, 20:15 Updated 15 July 2025, 19:57
Berge Bulk UK Chartering Handysize bulkers High Court
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