FOCUS Container Line has gone into liquidation.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission Tuesday (14 February) gave notice that the company would be wound up and appointed two liquidators from BRI Ferrier.
A spokesperson for Focus Container Line told DCN the company had “no comment at this stage”.
Managing director of United Rentals Australia (the parent company of Royal Wolf) Neil Littlewood told DCN the company had rented 3000 containers to Focus Container Line – a mix of 40-foot and 20-foot high cubes. The containers were on long-term lease to the line.
“We’re still in a process of discovery with the liquidator for all containers – we’ll be taking action in the short term to recover them – most of the containers are empty,” he said.
Mr Littlewood said the containers are all located in New Zealand and the east coast of Australia.
“We have no visibility on any chance of a pay-out of the full long-term lease and this will be a financial hit to Royal Wolf – hopefully it will be a short impact,” he said.
“We will have to bring those containers back to our depots and rebrand them and find an efficient asset strategy for those containers … We’ve got a lot of containers to get out and rent.”
Industry sources have raised the spectre of the debacle following the collapse of Hanjin Shipping. They told DCN empty container park operators are concerned about the future of the Focus containers sitting in their yards.
The industry sources said there are hundreds of containers in one Brisbane yard and around 300 empty containers in a Melbourne yard, with others being repositioned around Australia.
In advertising copy, Focus Container Line said it was a “new Australian owned and operated container shipping service providing simple and streamlined shipping to all freight forwarders throughout Australia and New Zealand”.
In November last year, Focus Container Line announced a new service between Ningbo, Auckland and Australia. The service deployed two ships: the MPP vessel BBC Denmark and the 1700-TEU San Giorgio.
AIS data sows BBC Denmark anchored off Auckland and San Giorgio heading north in the Coral Sea towards Hong Kong.
DCN understands Focus Container Line was founded in March 2022 and is based in Brisbane.
