The cash flow problems facing one of China’s highest-profile shipping companies, Grand China Logistics, appear to be deepening after it handed back at least two chartered vessels early to their owners and faced a possible ship seizure over late fuel payments.

The growing crisis for Grand China, part of the powerful, Hainan-based HNA Group, comes amid growing concerns for owners of ships for iron ore, coal and other dry bulk commodities about Chinese companies’ willingness to renege on long-term contracts. China’s Cosco, operator of the world’s largest dry bulk ship fleet, halted payments on some long-term charters in mid-2011 to force owners to cut the rates they were charging. Cosco eventually backed down after owners threatened large-scale seizures of the company’s ships.

Since then, at least five shipowners or ship managers worldwide have complained that GCL has been late making payments on ships it had chartered. In a separate case, New York-listed Diana Shipping said in December it was owed $4.8m for charter of the M/V Houston, which it had chartered for five years to China’s Shagang Shipping. Shagang is part of the Jiangsu Shagang steelmaking group.