A Shanghai court placed a cargo ship of Japanese shipping giant Mitsui OSK Lines under custody on Saturday after the shipping company failed to comply with the court's ruling on the compensation for two Chinese ships that were rented in the 1930s and later sank.

Shanghai Maritime Court ruled to take the action against the ship Baosteel Emotion at the Majishan port in Zhejiang province. The ship arrived from Australia on Saturday.

The Chinese court ruled in 2007 that Mitsui OSK must pay more than 2.9 billion Japanese yen ($28 million) in compensation to a Chinese family over a wartime contract dispute, but the Japanese company failed to pay the compensation after many reminders and rounds of settlement talks.