UNKAI (IMO 9188673) detained at Plastun, October 2026
The 28-year-old Belize-flagged general cargo ship UNKAI was detained at the Russian Far East port of Plastun on 6 October 2026, its third detention in the Tokyo MoU region in under five years and the second in 2026 alone. The vessel has changed ship manager twice in two years and is classed by the non-IACS society Overseas Marine Certification Services, a profile that scores 48 out of 100 on the VesselScore risk model, placing it firmly in the very high risk band.
VesselScore generates due diligence reports on any vessel in the world fleet.
Request accessThe detention
UNKAI was detained at Plastun, Russia, on 6 October 2026 during what appears to be a routine port call; her AIS destination was listed as Plastun with an ETA of 2 October. The detention record from THETIS names Overseas Marine Certification Service, Inc. (OMCS) as the recognised organisation and Vision Legal Group (Hong Kong) Ltd as the ISM company. The number and nature of deficiencies cited have not yet been published.
The vessel
UNKAI is a general cargo ship built in 1998 at Kegoya Dock in Kure, Japan. At 8,036 GT and 11,555 DWT, with a length overall of 115.4 metres and a beam of 20 metres, she is a standard handysize bulker-general cargo hull of her era. The vessel has flown the Belize flag since February 2018, having previously been registered in South Korea. Classification has been with Overseas Marine Certification Services (OMCS), a non-IACS society, since November 2024. Prior class societies include Intermaritime Certification Services (withdrawn), Korean Register (suspended April 2018), and Nippon Kaiji Kyokai (withdrawn February 2012). The progression from two IACS societies to two non-IACS societies is a factual feature of the vessel's class history. At 28 years old, UNKAI sits at the upper end of operational life for a vessel of this type.
Inspection history
The record is extensive: 104 inspections across 26 years, almost exclusively within the Tokyo MoU, with a single Indian Ocean MoU inspection at Mongla, Bangladesh, in September 2022. The vessel accumulated 194 deficiencies across those inspections, an average rate of roughly 1.9 per inspection. That average conceals a pronounced deterioration in recent years. Between 2000 and 2017, the vessel recorded zero deficiencies on virtually every inspection. The picture changed sharply from 2018 onward. An initial inspection at Hong Kong in October 2018 found 18 deficiencies and resulted in a detention. A June 2019 inspection at Fangcheng, China, produced 11 deficiencies and another detention. In September 2019, Nakhodka recorded 18 deficiencies but no detention. The Masan detention in March 2022 came with eight deficiencies. A Nagasaki inspection in July 2023 recorded 14 deficiencies without detention. And most recently, Guangzhou detained the vessel on 14 May 2026 with 15 deficiencies. Counting the current Plastun event, UNKAI has now been detained five times in total, four of those since October 2018. The vessel has required numerous follow-up inspections; the record shows clusters of follow-ups at Kholmsk (three in four days in March 2026), Nakhodka, Fangcheng, and elsewhere, indicating that initial release conditions were not always resolved immediately. The deficiency rate on initial inspections from 2018 onward is consistently high, with counts ranging from three to 18 per event.
Ownership and management
The management chain has been notably unstable. Registered owner DVM Logistics Ltd took ownership in June 2024, replacing Uniwisdom Marine Ltd, which had held the vessel since February 2018. DVM Logistics lists its address care of Vision Legal Group (Hong Kong) Ltd, suggesting a common beneficial interest. Ship management and ISM responsibility sat with East Line Shipping Co Ltd, a Russian company, from July 2024 until June 2026, when Vision Legal Group (Hong Kong) took over both roles. Vision Legal Group manages a fleet of just three vessels. Before East Line Shipping, the vessel was managed by Sinounion Shipping Service Ltd from early 2018. Going further back, the management trail runs through TMS Korea, Pacific Ship Management, Doowoo Shipping Corp, and Libera Corp. The vessel has had three names: she traded as Doowoo Jeju from 2012, became Uniwisdom in March 2018, and was renamed UNKAI in June 2024 when DVM Logistics took ownership. In total, the record shows at least six different ship managers over the vessel's life, with three changes since 2018 alone. The current manager, Vision Legal Group, had been in the role for only four months at the time of detention.
Risk profile
VesselScore rates UNKAI at 48 out of 100, placing it in the very high risk calibration band with an estimated detention probability of 12.3%. The single largest risk driver is the detention component (c2), which scores the maximum 20 out of 20 points, reflecting the vessel's recent detention history. The deficiency rate component (c1) adds 12 of a possible 15 points. Age contributes the full 10 out of 10 points, reflecting a 28-year-old hull. Manager churn scores 5 out of 15, registering the recent turnover in ship management. The flag and class component scores a modest 2 out of 10; Belize is not a Paris or Tokyo MoU blacklisted flag, but the non-IACS classification society is noted. AIS behaviour adds 3 points out of 5, with three loitering events detected and no AIS gaps. No sanctions exposure or casualty history is recorded. The vessel is not in the EU MRV dataset, so fuel efficiency and hull condition components are unscored.
What to watch
The immediate question is the release timeline and the nature of the deficiencies at Plastun. Given the Guangzhou detention only five months earlier, charterers should expect heightened PSC targeting at the vessel's next port call under Tokyo MoU risk-profiling rules. With Vision Legal Group only four months into the management role and operating a three-vessel fleet, the capacity of the manager to sustain compliance improvements is a material consideration. Any charterer or underwriter should verify that all statutory and class certificates remain current and that the OMCS class status is active, given the vessel's history of class withdrawals and suspensions across four different societies.
Due diligence on any vessel in the world fleet
VesselScore generates due diligence reports covering sanctions screening, full PSC history, ownership chain, market valuation, classification and flag history, AIS tracking, and much more.
Every PSC detention, every Monday
Free weekly digest: every vessel detained by port state control in the past 7 days, with risk scores and analysis.