One of Greece’s highest-profile shipowners has threatened to seize ships belonging to China’s biggest shipping company, after it halted payments on high-priced charter contracts.

George Economou told the Financial Times that Cosco’s stance over contracts struck during the 2008 shipping boom might reflect a failure to understand the importance of honouring past deals. Cosco, the world’s largest operator of “dry bulk” ships that carry iron ore, coal and other commodities, has become a major international player only in the past decade.

“We’re bending over backwards, telling them, ‘Take your time to try to decide how you find the money,’?” Mr Economou said. “Failing a constructive conclusion, the only course of action is to get security for any money. The only way to do that is worldwide ship arrests [seizures].” Although he has already had one Cosco vessel put under court control and prevented from leaving port in Louisiana, he said that he wanted to resolve the standoff amicably.