Burnaby company must pay $4.3M over disputed plastic shipments to Thailand

A Burnaby-based trading firm is on the hook for nearly $4.3 million after failing to present a defence by the deadline in a federal court lawsuit against it.

Golden Trust Trading Inc. has been ordered to pay shipping company Hapag-Lloyd Aktiengesellschaft for costs it incurred in transporting 33 shipping containers filled with waste paper and plastic film from Vancouver to Bangkok in the spring of 2019.

But a change in Thailand’s environmental import standards meant that the country couldn’t accept the shipment.

Hapag-Lloyd claimed in its lawsuit that the containers owned by Golden Trust remained in the port, unclaimed, for more than two years—incurring demurrage costs and other fees all the while.

Hapag-Lloyd says it was eventually able to re-export 30 of the containers, but the other three remain in Thailand and continue to incur costs. The company initially claimed “‘damages of USD $3,122,411.00 in capital, subject to adjustment,’ as well as interest and costs,” but after applying for default judgement, increased its claim to USD $3,934,040 (about CAD $5,350,000).

Hapag-Lloyd applied for default judgement after Golden Trust was four months late in filing its defence.

Federal court Justice Sébastien Grammond ordered that Golden Trust pay Hapag-Lloyd $4,299,797.52 plus 5% interest per year from the date of judgement.

As we’ve earlier reported, Golden Trust is also facing a similar lawsuit in BC Supreme Court from shipping company Yang Ming.

Yang Ming claims that Golden Trust contracted its services to ship 39 containers to Thailand in early 2019—but says that when the shipment arrived, no one from Golden Trust showed up to claim it.

It also claims Golden Trust fraudulently misrepresented the contents of the shipping containers—in the bills of lading, they were listed as holding bales of plastic, but Thailand Customs later informed Yang Ming that the containers actually contained plastic scrap.

The case occurred in the same year that many Asian countries began blocking Canadian shipments of waste to their ports—shipments which were often in violation of Canadian law. One notorious case saw the Philippines send 69 containers filled with garbage back to the Port of Vancouver.

Yang Ming is seeking CAD $1.83 million in damages from Golden Trust to cover costs it incurred while the shipment was held in the port, along with interest and further fees. Yang Ming’s claims have not been proven in court.

Golden Trust is listed in Canada’s Business Registries as an active business with a registered office in Burnaby. However, the business is listed as “temporarily closed” on Google and its website appears to have been taken down.

Market research firm Panjiva, which posts weekly updates of US shipments, says the last shipment supplied by Golden Trust left from the Port of Vancouver for Seattle in December 2021. The bill of lading lists Malaysian importing company Malcommerce (M) Sdn. Bhd. as the consignee and says the shipment contained 76,475.0 kg of materials, including polycarbonate.

Panjiva notes that plastic, film, polymers, and polycarbonate are some of Golden Trust’s top products.