A vessel owned by Taiwan’s cargo container shipping company Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp caught fire after an explosion occurred in a container on board while the ship was at the busy Port of Ningbo-Zhoushan in eastern China on Friday.
Yang Ming Marine confirmed the incident and said a preliminary investigation found that the explosion occurred in a container on its vessel, the YM Mobility, which reportedly arrived in Ningbo early on Friday morning after its last call in Shanghai.
“Immediate fire control measures were taken, and the situation is now under control,” Yang Ming Marine said in a statement. “All crew members have safely evacuated.”
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The container was loaded with hazardous materials, Yang Ming Marine said, adding that the owner of the goods had declared the container as a reefer used as a substitute for a dry container and did not need plugged-in electricity.
Yang Ming Marine said Huan Ming (Shanghai) International Shipping Agency Co, a subsidiary of Yang Ming Group, has been working with the authorities to manage the situation.
The cause of the explosion is still under investigation, the shipper said.
Yang Ming Marine said the YM Mobility is assigned to service the route between East Asia and the Middle East.
The shipper added that it would provide updates on the vessel’s status, cargo shipment and schedule adjustments when further information becomes available.
The explosion occurred at about 1:40pm on Friday, with shockwaves felt a kilometer away, while the YM Mobility was docked at the port’s Beilun terminal, Chinese media reported.
The container was loaded with materials that were vulnerable to explosions, such as lithium batteries and parabens, and it could take three months to repair the vessel, China Central Television (CCTV) cited authorities as saying.
After docking at Ningbo, the YM Mobility, equipped with 20 crew members, was scheduled to head to Jakarta, Indonesia, CCTV said.
The YM Mobility, built in 2011, is a Liberian flagged vessel with a capacity to transport 6,600 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) containers, Chinese media said.
TEU is a standard measurement of a cargo ship’s capacity.
The reports also said that the explosion was caused by overheating, and that the container that exploded belonged to South Korean logistics and shipping operators HMM Co.
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