{"id":151408,"date":"2025-08-17T16:27:35","date_gmt":"2025-08-17T23:27:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=151408"},"modified":"2025-08-17T16:27:35","modified_gmt":"2025-08-17T23:27:35","slug":"x-press-feeders-and-london-club-blast-sri-lanka-ruling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2025\/08\/17\/x-press-feeders-and-london-club-blast-sri-lanka-ruling\/","title":{"rendered":"X-Press Feeders and London Club blast Sri Lanka ruling"},"content":{"rendered":"

Courtesy Lloydslist<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

The Sri Lankan supreme court ordered the owners of X-Press Pearl to pay a fine of $1bn after the containership was lost in 2021 and polluted water off the island nation<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

X-Press Feeders has accused the court of convicting the vessel\u2019s master and its agents before their trials have concluded, while the London Club called the judgment a \u2018deeply troubling turn of events\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"X-Press<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Source: Indian Navy<\/em>X-Press Pearl sank on June 2, 2021, between 70bn-75bn plastic nurdles were spilled in Sri Lanka\u2019s western coastal belt as a result.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CONTAINERSHIP owner X-Press Feeders<\/a> said it is deeply concerned\u201d with a judgment from the Sri Lankan supreme court, which has ordered the owners and charters of lost boxship X-Press Pearl <\/em>(IMO: 9875343<\/a>) pay a fine of $1bn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2021-built, Singapore-flagged, 2,700 teu X-Press Pearl<\/em> caught fire<\/a> on May 20, 2021, was abandoned on May 25 of that year and finally sank on June 2, 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between 70bn-75bn plastic nurdles were spilled in Sri Lanka\u2019s western coastal belt as a result of the casualty. The marine pollution resulted in the deaths of 417 turtles, 48 dolphins and eight whales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A fishing ban was imposed for more than a year, which the ruling said, deprived the fisherfolk of their income, livelihood and their right to engage in lawful employment\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But X-Press Feeders said the court has effectively pronounced the vessel\u2019s master and agents guilty before their trials have concluded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The master has already languished in Sri Lanka for four and a half years due to a court-ordered travel ban,\u201d the company said in a statement seen by Lloyd\u2019s List.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite offers to deposit the maximum fine possible for the charges he faces, he remains in limbo, separated from his family and unable to resume his life or career.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

X-Press Feeders said the master was neither present nor represented legally when his actions were addressed in court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The judgment effectively holds him and the agents as human collateral to ensure the compliance of the owners and operators.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The London P&I Club<\/a> said the court had extended its reach far beyond its original scope\u201d. The case, it said, was originally grounded in a fundamental rights claim \u2014 where concerned citizens of Sri Lanka sought judicial intervention against their government\u2019s handling of an environmental incident\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chief executive James Bean said the ruling was an extraordinary and deeply troubling turn of events, not only for our valued member, X-Press Feeders, but for global shipping\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The court has taken what began as a rights-based claim against the Sri Lankan government and used it as a basis to unilaterally impose liability on our member and their agents seemingly without due process \u2014 with the agents, worryingly being used alongside the master, as human collateral for their claim.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The interim figure of $1bn was based on a report the Sri Lankan government itself had publicly disavowed itself as the basis for any claim\u201d and had attracted global criticism for a lack of scientific rigour, the P&I club said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bean called the figure arbitrary and unsupported\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/e.infogram.com\/_\/VC0zKysLmZZkEzz3qIwg?parent_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.lloydslist.com%2FLL1154539%2FX-Press-Feeders-and-London-Club-blast-Sri-Lanka-ruling&src=embed#async_embed<\/p>\n\n\n\n

X-Press Feeders also criticised the lack of scrutiny of the response of Sri Lanka\u2019s own authorities to the incident in 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ruling exonerates the actions of the harbour master and director general of merchant shipping, despite their own experts boarding and inspecting the vessel and raising no alarm or immediate reason for concern, more than a week before X-Press Pearl<\/em> sank\u201d, the company said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also ignores the vessel\u2019s pleas for help and the refusal by three ports (in Qatar, India and Sri Lanka) to offload the containers before the fire started.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the very start, X-Press Feeders has expressed deep regret to the people of Sri Lanka for the impact of X-Press Pearl<\/em>\u2019s sinking and remained committed to fully assist the government of Sri Lanka in all clean-up operations,\u201d the Singapore-headquartered company said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It acknowledged the need for some compensation but said this should be done in an equitable and fair manner that identifies the failings in the response and clean-up operations of the Sri Lankan government and is based on expert, scientifically based assessment of damages\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The judgment, which it claims ignores maritime law, establishes an unprecedented level of risk that we, along with most shipping companies, will struggle to meet\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We fear the inevitable rise in import-export costs and the broader impact on the people of Sri Lanka.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The London Club said the ruling contradicts the polluter pays\u201d principle, which is balanced by limitation of liabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To throw out these principles is to reject the very legal architecture that keeps international shipping \u2014 and by extension global trade and commerce \u2014 functioning,\u201d Bean said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The London P&I Club is unwavering in its commitment to its members, and we will continue to stand firmly by and support X-Press Feeders.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Courtesy Lloydslist The Sri Lankan supreme court ordered the owners of X-Press Pearl to pay a fine of $1bn after the containership was lost in 2021 and polluted water off the island nation X-Press Feeders has accused the court of convicting the vessel\u2019s master and its agents before their trials have concluded, while the London […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-151408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151408\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}