Maersk has confirmed that the 4,578 TEU Dyros has lost at least 91 boxes in the North Pacific Ocean because of rough weather on 21 March.
Nine of these boxes are labelled dangerous cargo and contained lithium-ion batteries packed with equipment.
At least another 101 containers were damaged while no crew members were injured, according to a Maersk representative, who told Container News that “the incident occurred around 1,200 nm from Japan, while the Liberia-flagged vessel, which is chartered and operated by Maersk, was en route from the port of Yantian, China, to the port of Seattle, US.”
According to Maersk’s statement, the ship, which is owned by Costamare, is able to continue its voyage and is heading for safe port.
“Crew, vessel and operations safety are of highest importance, and we are working closely together with the ship managers and we view this as a very serious incident which will be investigated thoroughly with the aim of minimizing the risk of similar incidents in the future,” said the Danish ocean carrier in its statement.
The full extent of the loss of cargo overboard and of any accompanying physical damage to containers remaining onboard the vessel, which was previously chartered to the Chinese carrier COSCO, may not become clear until the boxship arrives at the port of Seattle, according to the claims specialist WK Webster, which said, “We are therefore making arrangements to ascertain the extent of losses on board the vessel upon the vessel’s arrival there and we have cargo surveyors on hand to arrange inspection of any damaged cargo when access to that cargo is permitted.”
WK Webster has warned that recovery issues may arise in respect of the loss of containers overboard and physical damage to containers remaining onboard the vessel.
