A US judge has denied DHL the right to fight for the proceeds from the auction of a NewLead Holdings bulker, even though it has a seizure order against the ship.

District Judge Randal Hall, of the federal court in Savannah, Georgia, found that the links between two disputes over the bulker were too tenuous to allow the German freight giant’s ocean shipping division, DHL Project & Chartering, to intervene in the battle between Greece’s NewLead and four financial firms seeking to foreclose on promissory notes.

“DHL’s