Ten months after being seized in Mexico, Jan De Nul Group’s dredging vessel Zheng He remains detained in the port of Tampico, despite the various attempts undertaken by Jan De Nul Group to resolve the matter, the company announced on Wednesday.
Dredging solutions expert Jan De Nul Group said that its crew members on board are safe and sound.
The Mexican foreign trade authorities on 1 November 2023 conducted a search on the dredging vessel Zheng He and seized it. According to these authorities, the vessel must be classified as foreign ‘merchandise’ and following such classification, she should have been imported into Mexico.
Jan De Nul Group in a release on Wednesday disputes this argument, calling it “unlawful and unprecedented.”
The vessel Zheng He is a highly specialized dredging vessel, flying the flag of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and is owned by the European Dredging Company SA, part of Jan De Nul Group.
The vessel Zheng He was contracted to execute various dredging projects in The Bahamas by the end of 2023 and in the course of 2024. However, Jan De Nul Group has claimed that in order to avoid the peaks of the hurricane season in The Bahamas, the vessel temporarily left The Bahamas to seek shelter in the Gulf of Mexico, with the intention to return to The Bahamas in December 2023.
During this period, the Zheng He requested and was authorized by the competent Mexican authorities to make a stop-over in the Port of Tampico in Mexico for a crew change, garbage removal and preventive maintenance works on board.
On 1 November 2023, during the port call in Tampico, the Mexican foreign trade authorities conducted a search on board of the Zheng He and seized the vessel.
“On 14 February 2024, the Zheng He was even declared property of the Mexican Federal tax authorities, and in addition a tax fine was imposed of more than 1.6 billion MXN (today equivalent of 78 million EUR). This is abusive and disproportionate,” Jan De Nul Group said in its statement.
By judgement of 25 March 2024, a Mexican court ruled in favour of Jan De Nul Group. It “confirmed that the Zheng He was legally present in the port of Tampico without the need of importation and that there were irregularities during the vessel search on 1 November 2023,” the company added in the press release.
Despite this ruling, Jan De Nul Group did not succeed to obtain a release of the Zheng He.
“Jan De Nul Group will continue to take all possible actions to protect its crew, to reserve its rights over its assets and to obtain a release of the Zheng He. The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, as the vessel’s flag state, simultaneously initiated proceedings before the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, as part of the United Nations,” the group also noted.
To remind, Jan De Nul Group is an expert in offshore energy, dredging solutions, construction projects, remediation, and project development.
