BREAKING NEWS – ONE APUS WAS COLLAPSED IN THE PACIFIC
1st December 2020, ONE released a situation report that notified that 1,900 boxes or more could have been lost on Monday night when the vessel hit heavy weather in the Pacific.
ONE Apus (IMO# 9806079) was en-route from Yantian, China to Long Beach, USA when it encountered a storm cell producing gale-force winds and large swells which caused the ONE Apus to roll heavily resulting in the containers to dislodge and fall into the ocean. The Master diverted the vessel to ensure the ongoing safety of the crew and ship until conditions eased.
It added that the ship is now proceeding in a westerly direction towards Japan with plans to seek a suitable port to right unstable containers, assess any damages and determine the exact numbers of containers lost after encountering severe weather on the night of Monday, November 30 2020.
The vessel was on passage from Yantian, China to Long Beach, USA approximately 1600NM North West of Hawaii, when it encountered a violent storm cell producing gale-force winds and large swells which caused the ONE Apus to roll heavily resulting in the dislodging of the lost containers.
A notification was sent to the JRCC in Honolulu and Guam with maritime navigational warnings subsequently broadcast.
Early investigations onboard the ONE Apus have determined that the impacted container bays remain unsafe for close-quarter inspections; however, it is estimated that the number of lost or damaged units could exceed 1,900, of which some 40 are believed to be DG containers.
Our focus remains on getting the ship to a safe port to ensure the ongoing safety of the crew, the vessel and the cargo on board.” NYKSM said in a statement.
According to the World Shipping Council’s (WSC) Containers Lost at Sea 2020 update, an annual average of 1,382 containers were lost at sea between 2008 and 2019.
Container loss is an infrequent problem relative to the total volume of containerized trade, but it is of increasing interest to regulators.
After the MSC Zoe lost 277 shipping containers in the North Sea in early 2019, tons of debris washed up along the northern shores of the Netherlands, including a small number of potentially hazardous packages of organic peroxides. Australia’s maritime authorities have cracked down on container loss incidents over similar pollution concerns.
