Friday 04 December, 2020

Chidori Ship Holding, as owner, and NYK Shipmanagement, as manager of the container vessel ONE Apus (IMO # 9806079), reported that the vessel was heading west toward Japan with plans to find a suitable port to receive the unstable containers, assess all damage and determine the exact number of containers lost after encountering severe weather on the night of Monday, November 30, 2020.

The vessel was en route from Yantian, China to Long Beach, USA, approximately 1,600 nautical miles northwest of Hawaii, when it encountered a violent storm producing strong gusts and heavy seas, resulting in numerous containers being lost from the vessel.

Preliminary investigations aboard ONE Apus determined that the affected container areas were still unsafe to inspect; however, it was estimated that the number of containers lost or damaged could exceed 1,900, of which approximately 40 were believed to be DG containers.

“The important thing now is that we need to quickly find a safe port to ensure the safety of the crew, the vessel and the cargo on board,” NYKSM stated.

According to an update from the World Shipping Council (WSC), an average of 1,382 containers were lost at sea each year from 2008 to 2019.

Container losses represent a small issue relative to the total volume of goods in international trade, but they are receiving increasing attention from regulators.

After MSC Zoe lost 277 shipping containers in the North Sea in early 2019, tonnes of debris washed up along the northern coast of the Netherlands, including a small number of packages of potentially hazardous organic peroxide. Australian maritime authorities have addressed container-loss incidents because of similar pollution concerns.