Almost 2,000 containers aboard a ship have been lost or damaged when the vessel encountered stormy weather in the Pacific Ocean en route to the USA.
One Apus had been heading to Long Beach, California from Yantian, China. The vessel was subject to violent storms around 1,600 nautical miles North West from Hawaii causing the vessel to roll heavily. Around 1,900 containers became dislodged, after a multiple stack collapse. It is thought that around 40 of the containers where deemed as dangerous goods. The vessel was directed to Kobe, Japan to set right the dislodge and unstable containers.
An investigation will be conducted once the ship is berthed and deemed safe.
Incidents of this nature drive home how essential it is to take out insurance with any international shipment. Container ships and their crew can always be subject to dangerous weather and the safety of a container can never be fully guaranteed on a voyage.
Data gathered by the World Shipping Council, found that over the past 12 years, an average of 1,382 containers were lost at sea each year.
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