A group of suppliers to bankrupt Qingdao Yangfan Shipbuilding blocked the entrance of the shipyard yesterday, demanding the shipyard to repay debts totalling about RMB20m ($2.94m) owed to them.
Qingdao Yangfan Shipbuilding went into a bankruptcy restructuring process last year with total liabilities of up to RMB4.8bn ($707m).
The suppliers claim that the court has ruled Yangfan to repay the debts to them however the shipyard still hasn’t executed the court’s order.
A source close to the shipyard told Splash that the construction of commercial ships has been suspended at the shipyard and one of the shareholders, Qingdao Huatong Group, is still funding the construction of military products.
Last year, Huatong Group had proposed to the controlling shareholder of the yard, Jianlong Group, to jointly invest in order to save the yard however Jianlong Group turned down the proposal.
According to the source, the restructuring process of the shipyard has been moving slowly and so far the receiver hasn’t been able to come up with a feasible restructuring plan.
