A Maltese company is seeking to seize more than $5m in property to back up its arbitration proceedings over a bulker held offshore China for nearly seven months, unable to discharge its cargo of Australian coal.

Australasia Charterers, the charterer of the 92,900-dwt Cyprus-flagged Necklace (built 2012), filed suit against sub-charterer Worldwide Bulk Shipping in the US federal court for the Western District of Washington on Tuesday.