The shipbuilding company Uljanik Group reported on Monday that it has cancelled a contract for the construction of a livestock carrier ship for the Singapore-based Wellard Ships shipping company, saying that "the client was not meeting its contractual conditions".

With the termination, Uljanik said, the contract is no longer binding for the contracting parties.

Uljanik added that all the activities on the construction of the ship had earlier been postponed at the client’s request, and that no physical work on the ship had actually been launched yet.

The termination is the latest in a string of cancelled orders at the Uljanik Group. Recently the Algoma Central Corporation from Canada had terminated their four remaining contracts for ships that were to be built at the Rijeka-based 3. Maj dock, leaving the shipyard with no orders on their books.

A union representative at 3. Maj, Juraj Soljic, on Saturday blamed Uljanik’s management board for “not trying sufficiently hard” to retain the contracts.

Economy Minister, Darko Horvat, said that Uljanik’s strategic partner, the entrepreneur Danko Koncar, has yet to show if he was a serious investor by injecting fresh capital into the company needed for its restructuring.

He said that talks are under way with potential investors from China, South Korea, Germany, the Netherlands, and Italy, and that last week a meeting was held with investors from Ukraine.

Asked when the September wages – due to be paid out on Monday – would be paid for workers at the Uljanik Group, Horvat said that this time the government would not be able to help.

Horvat said that because the group’s accounts were blocked, there was a real possibility that the Uljanik Group would file for bankruptcy, and that October 23 was a key date, because that’s when 3. Maj’s accounts will have been blocked for more than 60 days.

“If the management board doesn’t manage to find a way to unblock the account, which is currently frozen due to a 35 million kuna (€4.7 million) debt, bankruptcy will have to be enforced by law,” Horvat said.

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