A Chinese bulker believed to have damaged two international underwater telecom cables in the Baltic Sea this week has stopped off Denmark, possibly on orders of local authorities.
Vessel trackers show the 75,100-dwt Yi Peng 3 (built 2001) at anchor since late Tuesday in the Kattegat strait with at least one Danish Navy vessel nearby.
The Yi Peng 3, which is listed under the management of China’s Ningbo Yipeng, is underway from Ust-Luga in Russia to Pakistan or the west coast of India with a cargo of pig iron.
The ship stopped after German defence minister Boris Pistorius suggested on Tuesday that the disruption of two separate underwater cables in the region was no accident.
“We have to conclude, without knowing exactly who did it, that it is a hybrid action and we also have to assume — without knowing it — that it is sabotage,” Pistorius said.
The first internet cable ran between Santahamina in Finland and the German city of Rostock. The second connected Lithuania with the Swedish island of Gotland.
Ship spotters have found that the Yi Peng sailed over both around the time the disruptions happened.
Two anonymous US officials cited by a CNN reporter on X on Wednesday said, however, that the disruption was not caused deliberately but “likely … by an anchor drag from a passing vessel”.
If correct, this would not be the first time a Chinese vessel has caused such an incident.
As TradeWinds reported, Chinese authorities admitted that the 1,638-teu NewNew Polar Bear (built 2005) damaged the Balticconnector subsea gas pipeline last year.
The Beijing investigation, which was sparked by a Finnish probe into the matter, attributed this to an accident caused by a strong storm, according to a report by the South China Morning Post.
Finnish police believed the damage was caused by the dragging of an anchor on the seabed. The country's authorities said they learned that the NewNew Polar Bear was missing one of its front anchors.
