Stranded Korean crude oil tanker to be auctioned in Dubai

Samho Crown, the South Korean crude oil tanker that was stranded in Dubai in 2011, is going under the hammer.

Currently, docked between Port Rashid and Drydocks World, the vessel, built by Hyundai Heavy Industries in 1996, will be auctioned on Sunday (May 18, 2014) with the reserve price set at Dh81.4 million.

The minimum increment stands at Dh100,000.

“The online auction will be held on Sunday and it will be sold as is on its place. We currently have got three bidders registered with us,” an Emirates Auction official told Emirates 24|7.

“The winning bidder can sell the tanker as scrap and refurbish it… it’s up to them to decide,” he added.

Samho Shipbuilding, based in Tongyoung, South Gyeongsang Province, South Korea, went into liquidation in 2012.

The bankruptcy department of Changwon district court decided in February 2012 to end Samho's court receivership since the yard seemed unlikely to rehabilitate, international media reports said.

Samho Shipbuilding got into trouble after Samho Shipping, its mother company, requested court receivership in April 2011, faced with management difficulty as order contracts fell.

The South Korean shipbuilder had been ranked in the world top 100 yards, on the basis of backlog, during 2000s of boom period.

When stranded in Dubai, the tanker had a crew of 28. Though the exact number of crew members onboard in Dubai isn’t known, local media reports said that most of the crew was repatriated following payment of their dues.

 

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