A Navios Maritime Containers vessel has lost containers overboard off Australia in rough weather, local authorities have confirmed.
The 8,204-teu Navios Unite (built 2006) is said to have lost three containers about 33 km (18 nautical miles) south west of Cape Leeuwin in Western Australia.
The ship was on a journey from Fremantle to Adelaide in South Australia, according to the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA).
A government aircraft from Perth carried out a search of an area of about 1,600 square km for any sightings of the missing containers, but none were found.
AMSA said it was “gathering information about the incident and will determine its course of action once the circumstances are understood”.
The Liberian-flagged containership is currently alongside in the port of Adelaide, according to latest AIS data.
Australian authorities have taken a tough line on boxships losing containers overboard in its waters, often imposing financial penalties.
Steamship Mutual has just recently had to provide financial security of AUD 22.5m ($14.8m) to secure the release of the 5,510-teu APL England (built 2001).
The ship lost 50 containers off Sydney after running into heavy weather last month and only 15 of those have been recovered to date.
Australia has also only just finished retrieving more than 60 containers and their contents from the seafloor off Newcastle that were lost from a Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp ship in June 2018.
Last month, Australia began legal proceedings against the Taiwanese owner to recover the cost of recovering the containers, which was put at about AUD 17m.
