HUI TONG 27 (IMO 9546693) detained at Singapore, October 2026
The Barbados-flagged chemical tanker HUI TONG 27 was detained in Singapore on 7 October 2026 under the management of Zhoushan Haibo Ship Management Co Ltd with classification by the Indian Register of Shipping. The vessel is virtually invisible in international PSC databases, with no inspection history, no Equasis profile, and conflicting data on flag state and technical management, a combination that should give any charterer pause.
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HUI TONG 27 was detained in the port of Singapore on 7 October 2026. The detention record from THETIS names Zhoushan Haibo Ship Management Co Ltd as the ISM company and the Indian Register of Shipping (IRS) as the recognised organisation. No deficiency count or deficiency codes have been published at the time of writing. Singapore is one of the busiest and most professionally run PSC regimes in the world; a detention there carries weight with underwriters and charterers across Asia-Pacific.
The vessel
HUI TONG 27 is a chemical tanker built in 2009 at Beilun Lantian Shipbuilding in Ningbo, China. She measures 91.3 metres LOA with a beam of 13.5 metres, 2,253 GT, 1,104 NT, and 3,360 DWT. Propulsion comes from a 4-stroke diesel engine, model 6320ZC. At 17 years old she sits firmly in the middle-aged bracket for a small chemical tanker of Chinese construction. The THETIS detention record lists her flag as Barbados, while other reference data shows China, with a call sign (BIOT) that does not correspond to the standard Barbados prefix. This discrepancy is itself a data point worth noting: it may reflect a recent flag change that has not yet fully propagated through registries.
Inspection history
There is no PSC inspection history available for HUI TONG 27 in the report dataset. The vessel does not appear in Equasis. For a 17-year-old chemical tanker that has presumably been trading for over a decade, the complete absence of an international PSC record is unusual. One possible explanation is that the vessel spent most of her career in Chinese domestic or regional trade where inspections are recorded in national systems rather than in Paris or Tokyo MoU databases. Whatever the reason, the lack of any prior inspection trail means there is no baseline against which to judge whether this Singapore detention represents a deterioration or a first encounter with international scrutiny. Charterers and underwriters reviewing this vessel will find no comfort in the record because the record simply does not exist.
Ownership and management
The detention record identifies Zhoushan Haibo Ship Management Co Ltd as the ISM company. Separately, reference data names Shanghai Qizhang Ship Management, China, as the technical manager. No company history, ownership timeline, or management change dates are available in the report. The presence of two different Chinese ship management entities in two different data sources, one at detention and one in registry data, could reflect a recent management change or simply a discrepancy in how commercial and safety management roles are recorded. Zhoushan Haibo is based in the Zhoushan archipelago, a major hub for small tanker and bulk operations serving Chinese coastal and short-sea trades. Neither company has a significant international profile in major PSC databases.
Risk profile
No VesselScore could be generated because the vessel was not found in Equasis. This data gap is itself a risk factor. The combination of a small Chinese-built chemical tanker, classified by the Indian Register of Shipping rather than an IACS member, flagged to Barbados (a flag that does not consistently appear on major white lists), with no discoverable international inspection record, and now detained in Singapore, creates a profile that sits at the higher end of the risk spectrum for counterparties. IRS is not a member of IACS, and Barbados has faced periods on the Paris MoU grey list, though its current standing should be independently verified. The age of the vessel, 17 years, is not extreme, but for a chemical tanker carrying potentially hazardous cargoes, the absence of verifiable inspection and certification history is a material concern.
What to watch
The immediate priority is the release from detention and publication of the full deficiency list, which will reveal the nature and severity of the issues found by Singapore MPA inspectors. Charterers should independently verify the current flag state and whether the vessel holds valid certificates from Barbados. The apparent discrepancy between the Barbados flag on the THETIS record and the China flag elsewhere needs resolution. Any party considering a fixture should request the vessel's full IRS class survey status directly from the society, as no class records are available through standard databases. Finally, the relationship between Zhoushan Haibo and Shanghai Qizhang, and which entity holds current DOC and SMC responsibilities, should be confirmed before any commercial engagement.
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