On the morning of October 8, Shanghai Maritime Court (SMC) accepted a case in which a party concerned to Hong Kong arbitration proceedings applied for property preservation, and SMC granted such application that day in accordance with law. This is the first case of property preservation applied during Hong Kong arbitration proceedings accepted by court of Mainland China since the Arrangement of Supreme People’s Court on Mutual Assistance between Courts of Mainland China and Courts of Hong Kong SAR for Arbitration Proceedings (hereinafter referred to as “Arbitration Preservation Arrangement”) as judicial interpretation came into effect on October 1.

In May 2018, the Applicant (a shipping company in Hong Kong) entered into a voyage charterparty with the Respondent (a company in Shanghai), agreeing that the Applicant would provide a cargo carrier to transport Respondent’s coals from Indonesia to Shanghai. Thereafter, the Respondent cancelled the charterparty, causing loss to the Applicant, and the Applicant initiated interim arbitration proceedings according to the charterparty. During such interim arbitration proceedings, both parties reached Settlement Agreement, agreeing that the Respondent shall pay USD180,000. However, the Respondent failed to pay such agreed settlement sum, thus the Applicant initiated arbitration proceedings on July 16, 2019 before Hong Kong International Arbitration Center according to the arbitration clause as agreed in the Settlement Agreement.

                                                                                                         Source: Shanghai Maritime Court News Center