QI YUAN 17 (IMO 1136076) detained at Incheon, October 2026
The Guinea-Bissau-flagged bulk carrier QI YUAN 17 has been detained in Incheon, South Korea, marking its first recorded detention after a year of intensive port state control attention across East Asia. The vessel changed ownership, management, flag, name, and classification society within a single month in late 2025, and has since accumulated 42 deficiencies across ten inspections in barely ten months of trading under its new identity.
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QI YUAN 17 was detained at Incheon, South Korea, on 6 October 2026. The detention was recorded by THETIS. The vessel's recognised organisation at the time of detention was Universal Maritime Bureau Ltd, and its ISM company was listed as Bright Concord Inc Limited. The specific number of deficiencies and deficiency codes associated with this detention are not yet published.
The vessel
QI YUAN 17 is a 2009-built Handysize bulk carrier of 7,719 GT and 12,480 DWT, measuring 121 metres LOA with a 20-metre beam. She was built in China and spent her first 16 years under the Chinese flag, trading as Chun Yang 7 from delivery in February 2009, then as Jing Ting 10 from December 2023. In September 2025 the vessel was renamed QI YUAN 17, reflagged to Guinea-Bissau, and changed classification. The current class society is Universal Maritime Bureau, following a withdrawal from Zianlian Chuen. Guinea-Bissau is not a member of any major white-list regime, and Universal Maritime Bureau is not an IACS member society. For charterers and underwriters, the combination of a non-IACS class and a flag with limited oversight capacity is a significant marker.
Inspection history
The PSC record under the vessel's current identity is brief but dense. In the ten months between September 2025 and July 2026, port state authorities in the Tokyo MoU region inspected QI YUAN 17 ten times, recording 42 deficiencies, an average of 4.2 per inspection. That average is elevated for a Handysize bulker, and the volume of inspections itself tells a story: the vessel was inspected almost monthly, a cadence that indicates PSC targeting systems were repeatedly flagging her. The most alarming single inspection came at Nagoya on 3 April 2026, when Japanese authorities found 18 deficiencies in a single initial inspection but, notably, did not detain. A follow-up at Quang Ninh on 18 April cleared the vessel. The first inspection after the ownership change, at Weihai on 28 September 2025, recorded six deficiencies spanning fire safety, ballast water management, navigation safety, and watertight integrity. Fire safety deficiencies recurred at Quang Ninh in July 2026, alongside ISPS security findings. The pattern is of a vessel that generates deficiencies across multiple categories at virtually every port call. Prior to the current detention in Incheon, the vessel had zero detentions on record. But the absence of a detention before now, given the sustained deficiency rate, was arguably a matter of time rather than of quality.
Ownership and management
The vessel's current ownership and management structure dates to September 2025. Registered owner Sheng Yuan International Shipping and ship/commercial manager Bright Concord Inc Ltd, both based in Hong Kong, took over on 15 September 2025. Bright Concord subsequently assumed the ISM Manager role on 25 January 2026. Bright Concord operates a fleet of nine vessels. Before September 2025, the vessel was owned and managed by Ma'anshan Huayuan Shipping, which held both the registered owner and ship manager roles from December 2023. That earlier transfer in December 2023, when the vessel was renamed from Chun Yang 7 to Jing Ting 10, was itself a complete change of hands. The timeline shows two full ownership and management turnovers within less than two years, September 2023 to September 2025, followed by a flag change from China to Guinea-Bissau and a classification switch from Zianlian Chuen to Universal Maritime Bureau. The VesselScore system assigns near-maximum points for management churn, at 12.5 out of a possible 15. That score is justified by the data.
Risk profile
VesselScore rates QI YUAN 17 at 37.8 out of 100, placing the vessel firmly in the high-risk band with an estimated detention probability of 9.6%. The score is driven by several compounding factors. The deficiency rate component scores at maximum (15 out of 15), reflecting the 4.2 deficiencies per inspection average. The severity mix is also at maximum (10 out of 10), confirming that deficiencies span serious categories including fire safety, ISPS security, and watertight integrity. Manager churn scores 12.5 out of 15. The vessel's age, at 17 years, contributes 7.7 out of 10 points. The flag and class combination adds 4 out of 10 points. AIS behaviour analysis recorded three loitering events and no AIS gaps, contributing a further 3 points. The vessel shows no sanctions exposure and no recorded casualties, which are the only clean components in the profile. Taken together, the score reflects a vessel where nearly every controllable risk factor is elevated simultaneously.
What to watch
The immediate question is the nature and number of deficiencies underpinning this detention, which THETIS has not yet published. Given the Nagoya inspection in April 2026 produced 18 deficiencies without a detention, the threshold for Korean authorities to detain may indicate particularly serious findings this time. Charterers should note that this vessel has been inspected ten times in ten months under her current flag, all within the Tokyo MoU. A detention now will raise the vessel's targeting priority further across the region. The combination of Guinea-Bissau flag, Universal Maritime Bureau class, and a manager with a fleet of only nine ships means there is limited institutional depth behind this vessel. Any fixture involving QI YUAN 17 should factor in the near-certainty of further inspections at every port call, with associated delays, and should verify that class certificates and ISM documentation are current and valid.
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