A major explosion occurred Friday on the containership YM Mobility while docked at the port of Ningbo-Zhoushan in China.
Fortunately, no casualties were reported.
YM Mobility is operated by Yang Ming and deployed on the Far East to Middle East route (CGX). The company said the cause of the incident is still under investigation but preliminary findings suggest that an explosion occurred in a container loaded with dangerous goods. According to the shipper’s declaration, the container was a reefer used as a substitute for a dry container, without requiring power connection.
“Immediate fire control measures were taken, and the situation is now under control. All crew members have safely evacuated. Huan Ming (Shanghai) International Shipping Agency Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Yang Ming Group, is actively coordinating with the authorities to manage the situation,” the company said.
Ningbo-Zhoushan is China’s second busiest container shipping port after Shanghai, handling over 100,000 TEUs daily.
Peter Sand, Chief Analyst at Xeneta, does not believe the incident will have a significant impact on the market. “Ningbo-Zhoushan is a hugely important and well-connected port in the Far East, second only to Shanghai in China and on par with Singapore. It is a critical hub for container shipping and this incident is deeply concerning from a safety perspective, but it is unlikely it will have a significant impact on the market,” he said.
Nevertheless the incident is the latest to raise serious safety concerns in ocean container shipping.
“This type of incident should never happen and is another example of how one failure in ocean container shipping can have catastrophic consequences. Had this explosion happened at sea rather than at berth in port then the crew and ship would have been in even more perilous danger,” said Sand.
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