There was no noisier story in dry-bulk shipping last year than Cosco’s charter-hire stand-off with foreign counterparties, when the Beijing giant held back hire due and unilaterally demanded renegotiation of catastrophically expensive long-term charters. Owners such as George Economou on the other side of the row stoutly maintained that a company owned by the Chinese state must have the resources to honour its commitments and must be made to do so.
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