X-Press Feeders Declines to Pay Sri Lankan Court Judgment
X-Press Feeders has declined to pay an initial judgment ordered by the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka for damages from the loss of the XPress Pearl, which burned and sank off Colombo with disastrous effects in 2021. The first $250 million tranche is due on September 23, and if paid, it would more than double the amount that X-Press has paid out so far.
In a statement Tuesday, the Singapore-based company said that it is "unable to make payment at this stage, and it is still in talks with Sri Lankan authorities.
"While we respect the judicial process, the ruling leaves open the possibility of additional and potentially unlimited compensation. Any payment towards the judgement could set a dangerous precedent for how maritime incidents will be resolved in the future," said Shmuel Yoskovitz, Chief Executive Officer of X-Press Feeders.
X-Press Pearl suffered a slow-rolling disaster on her final voyage in 2021. Several containers of nitric acid started leaking on deck, and the master sought a port of refuge. However, port officials at Hamad, Qatar and Hazira, India refused to allow the unloading of the leaking boxes. The container ship sailed onwards to Colombo, Sri Lanka, a voyage of some 1,000 nautical miles southeast from Hazira.
On arrival off Colombo, a container on deck caught fire, but local authorities refused to allow XPress Pearl to berth for firefighting operations. The ship burned and sank, releasing acids, caustic soda, 9,700 tonnes of epoxy resin and 1,680 tonnes of plastic pellets into the water - the largest plastic spill in history.
In July 2025, Sri Lanka's Supreme Court ruled in favor of local fishermen in an environmental-damage suit against X-Press Feeders, finding that X-Press had not fully informed the port of the unfolding catastrophe on board. The court set the value of the loss at $1 billion and gave the owner, charterer and agent one year to pay. The court's plan requires four $250 million installments, payable quarterly. All the money would be deposited in court-administered funds for compensation to the fishing community and for environmental remediation.
X-Press Feeders took issue with the court's decision. “The court’s intent to lay all blame and liability on the vessel’s owners and operators is blatantly apparent in their judgment,” the firm said in a statement last month. "[It has] effectively pronounced the vessel’s master and local agents guilty of criminal charges before their trials have concluded," referring to the parallel criminal case against X-Press Pearl's captain.
In the new statement issued Tuesday, X-Press Feeders said that it sympathizes with local fishermen and is willing to work with local nonprofits and community organizations to provide compensation directly. It noted that all government claims approved by the International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation have already been paid out. Yoskovitz called for a court judgment that is "substantiated, proportionate and consistent with international conventions."