China Sells Ships Online
Chinese Maritime Court has sold five vessels of bankrupt Wenzhou Shipping, subsidiary of Zhejiang Shipping Group, through online auctions on Taobao.com for a a total price of $22.81m.
The auctioned ships include 2011-built 57,000-dwt supramax bulker Zhe Hai 167, 2009-built 33,400-dwt handysize bulker Zhe Hai 162, 2009-built 23,500-dwt handysize bulker Zhe Hai 156 , a tugboat and an oil barge.
Singapore-based company Varada One's vessel was auctioned off on online shopping platform Taobao for $11.7, Xinhua news agency reported.
The VLCC Varada Blessing is 1993-built, 300,000 dwt tanker.
According to the Xinhua report, courts in China are now increasingly auctioning seized property online. More than 120 courts in Guangdong have registered on Taobao's judicial sales platform, with online auction sales by the sector in the province jumping from 100 million yuan in 2014 to 10 billion yuan in 2016.