An Ocean Network Express (ONE) containership has suffered a container collapse off the US west coast in rough weather, the shipowner has confirmed.
The 14,052-teu ‘new panamax’ class ONE Aquila (built 2018) was reportedly en route to Long Beach when the incident occurred.
The incident took place on 30 October 2020 but largely went unreported until ONE released a copy of a customer advisory to the media.
“Considering the vessel situation and various factors, the latest plan for the vessel is to divert to the Port of Tacoma to do her survey and re-work of the collapsed containers, subject to authorities’ approval,” ONE said.
The Panamanian-flagged vessel is scheduled to reach the Port of Tacoma on Friday 6th November, the shipowner said.
“This is only the interim report of the progress and ONE will be advising all customers regarding those plans as they are concluded in due course.”
ONE said “a limited number of containers are affected by this incident”. The ONE Aquila is deployed in the Pacific South Loop 7 (PS7) service.
Significantly delayed
Germany's Hapag-Lloyd, a partner of ONE in THE Alliance, said considering the terminal congestion expected in the California ports, the vessel is expected to be “significantly delayed” and a schedule recovery plan will be shared once available.
In March last year another ONE containership – the 8,614-teu Helsinki Bridge (built 2012) – lost several containers overboard off the US.
The Panamanian-flagged vessel was heading into Wilmington from Boston when it hit bad weather, according to the local US coast guard.
According to the Swedish Club, containers lost at sea is one of the most expensive claims it faces as a protection and indemnity insurer.
The Gothenburg-based mutual estimates that an average claim for containers lost overboard amounts to $135,000 which is more than two and a half times higher than the average claims cost.
While lost containers accounts for just 4% of its total number of claims, it accounts for over 10% of its costs.
Bad weather is one of the major catalysts for containers being lost over board with the other being misdeclared cargo, the club said.
“The excessive forces that are applied to the structure of a vessel in extreme conditions can lay bare errors that have been made when loading the cargo on board,” it said.
On average 1,382 containers are lost at sea every year, according to the latest 2020 update from the World Shipping Council (WSC).
