Four sanctioned mid-sized container ships linked to Sealead Shipping have been permitted by the US Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) to be scrapped.
The ships, ranging from 5,888 TEU to 6,966 TEU, fomerly owned by Bank of Communications Financial Leasing, will be the largest to be recycled since 2020. These were among 22 ships sanctioned in July 2025 by OFAC for links to Iranian official Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani. Container shipping consultancy Linerlytica said the ships are the 2005-built 6,350 TEU “Big” (ex Bigli); a 2006-built 5,888 TEU pair “Plan” (ex Rantanplan) and “Yes” (ex Yogi) and 2009-built 6,966 TEU “Time” (ex Timon).
Equasis shows that all three ships were owned by special purpose vehicles that were subsidiaries of Bocom Financial Leasing, before being sold to undisclosed interests around March.
“Big”, “Plan” and “Yes” were reflagged from Liberia to Guyana, while “Time” was reflagged from Liberia to Comoros. Coincidentally, both the Guyana and Comoros flag registries have been linked to ships in the shadow fleet that typically transport cargo from sanctioned countries.
Vessel-tracking data shows that “Big” and “Time” are now heading to Colombo, Sri Lanka, from Pasir Gudang, Malaysia. “Yes” is now anchored off Port Klang, Malaysia, while “Plan” is anchored in Altamira, Mexico. In July 2025, OFAC sanctioned more than 115 entities and ships linked to Shamkhani. Sealead particularly, was alleged to be a front for Iranian shipping activities. By August 2025, SeaLead disclosed that multiple chartered ships had been sanctioned and the company terminated the affected charter arrangements.
This, and the US-Israel conflict against Iran that has seen some of the company’s chartered vessels stranded in the Strait of Hormuz, affected Sealead’s operations adversely.
Based in Singapore, Sealead focused on Far East-Middle East routes and at one point, operated as many as 50 ships with capacity of over 197,000 TEU. Before being caught out by sanctions, Sealead was the 13th largest liner operator. The company has cut back its operations significantly and staff have been retrenched as Sealead has tumbled out of the top 50 liner operators.
Container shipping consultancy Linerlytica said that only four feeder ships, totalling 4,456 TEU, have been scrapped in the first five months of 2026, with the high demand for ships keeping charter rates and second-hand prices at elevated levels. If not for the US sanctions, these ships would have been valued in excess of 400% of their scrap values. (PL)
