Maersk container ship suffers engine room fire

A Maersk vessel en-route to South Africa has suffered a major engine room fire that has disabled the vessel some 220 nautical miles off the coast of Guadaloupe, in the Caribbean Sea.

An engine room fire has disabled the Maersk Vilnius in the Caribbean Sea.

A Maersk Line statement confirmed that the 1,800TEU Maersk Vilnius had suffered damage as a result of fire on 26 April, but the company said that all crew were safe, and the fire has been extinguished. There was no reported pollution as a result of the accident.

The Singapore flagged ship was travelling to Port Elizabeth in South Africa from Freeport in the Bahamas when the fire occurred.

“The vessel remains at sea in a safe area. Required firefighting measures were promptly deployed by vessel’s crew and fire has been extinguished. Vessel power has been restored, including the power to reefer units on board,” said Maersk.

The company added that the extent of the damage to the vessel is being assessed.

“Potential repair options and cargo contingency are being evaluated at available ports. The safety and health of our people is our main priority and we are cooperating fully with the French Coast Guard,” added the Danish operator.

Maersk delivers Refrigerated Containers to South Africa

Cape Town, April 28, 2020 --

The containers have departed Jebel Ali last weekend and are expected to arrive in Durban early May to be distributed among Maersk and Safmarine customers.

 

Reefer containers are currently scarce in South Africa due to the imbalance in trade flows, which has been impacted by the lockdown in China in Q1 and the expected stronger demand for South African fruit. 
“Knowing the importance of the upcoming export season to our customers as well as the South African economy, Maersk remains committed to serve our South African reefer customers ensuring their fresh citrus continues to be delivered globally.” says Jonathan Horn, Managing Director for Maersk Southern Africa and Indian Ocean Islands. “We will continue to support South African companies, industry and producers with viable solutions to work through the current challenging scenario to keep their goods moving,” he adds.

Maersk offer multiple solutions to customers in South Africa such as Phytosanitary Certification, customs house brokerage, cold storage and a comprehensive array of inland haulage solutions. Maersk’s vast array of digital offerings allows customers to continue their business online and to track goods worldwide using the company’s app.

Since February, Maersk has developed several global solutions for customers to work through the current challenging trade scenario. They include providing alternative sea and land routes, terminals, cold-storage depots in China and Russia, extra trucking services, rail services support and daily advisories, updating customers worldwide on how to keep their goods moving. 

About Maersk

A.P. Moller - Maersk is an integrated container logistics company working to connect and simplify its customers’ supply chains. As the global leader in shipping services, we operate in 130 countries and employ roughly 76,000 people. Our mission is to enable and facilitate global supply chains and provide opportunities for our customers to trade globally.

Crowley Adds More than 200 New Refrigerated Containers to Keep Perishables Moving Through the Cold Chain

Crowley Logistics has added 222 new refrigerated (reefer) cargo containers to its industry-leading equipment fleet to ensure equipment availability at origin for perishables moving through the cold chain. These units are in addition to 300 new reefers received in January of this year.

The new units, which are all 40-foot-long high cubes, are built to Crowley’s exacting standards and further demonstrate the company’s focus on offering customers the most reliable and efficient equipment in the Central America and Caribbean markets. These units have wireless asset monitoring (WAM) technology, which provides continuous monitoring as the reefers transit from origin to destination, both at sea and over land, to ensure the cold chain is maintained the entire time goods are moving.

“The acquisition of these containers is part of our continued commitment to provide the best equipment in the right quantities – all strategically positioned to meet customers’  needs during peak season and throughout the rest of the year,” said Steve Collar, senior vice president and general manager, Crowley Logistics.

Crowley’s industry-leading equipment, combined with grower and farm services such as load planning and equipment sanitization, make Crowley a trusted partner for perishables shippers.  In addition to providing in-transit services such as location and temperature monitoring, the company offers customs clearance, fumigation options, refrigerated storage and last-mile delivery to ensure quality through single-source accountability.

The containers arrived in Santo Tomas, Guatemala this month and are already being used in support of Central America’s continuing heavy northbound reefer season. The new containers are equipped with environmentally friendly Star Cool refrigeration units, incorporating several changes to further boost efficiency and reliability.

Since 2014, Crowley has invested roughly $160 million in new cargo equipment for its fleet. Today, the company operates over 50,000 pieces of owned and leased intermodal equipment. The equipment’s diverse sizes and strategic locations throughout the U.S, Central America and the Caribbean provide customers a variety of solutions to meet demands.

WHAT IS TARE, NET, MAX. GROSS, CU. CAP AND THE PREFIX?

Are you on the road often? Then the chances of having seen the terms tare, net, max. gross and CU. CAP on the container of the truck in front of you are quite high. Did you ever wonder what these codes on the back of a shipping container mean? These terms indicate how much kg/lbs of cargo can be transported in it and where the shipping container comes from.

TARE

Tare is the weight of an empty container. The tare weight of a 20ft shipping container is already 2.180kg while the biggest container, the 40ft High Cube, has a tare weight of 3.820kg.

NET

Net is applicable to the weight of the cargo. It indicates the maximum freight weight for that container. For a 20ft shipping container the “net” is approximately 28.480kg.

As we know that a crate of Dutch beer weighs 14,5kg each, a 20ft shipping container offers capacity for 21.000 crates of beer! The weight of pallets and other (packaging) materials is not yet accounted for.

MAX. GROSS.

The max. gross of a container indicates the maximum weight of the container including its cargo. This weight of cargo also includes cardboards, plastics and pallets. Max. gross is also referred to as M.G.W, max. gr. or max. gross weight. The maximum weight of 20ft, 40ft and 40ft High Cube shipping containers is 30.480kg. As containers increase in size, the maximum weight remains the same.

CU. CAP

CU. CAP. is short for cubic capacity, the volume of the container in cubic meters. On the shipping container this is indicated as a number followed by CU.M. A 20ft shipping container has a CU. CAP OF 33,2 CU.M. and a 40ft container has a CU. CAP of 66,7 CU.M.

A crate of beer is sized 0,4×0,3×0,25m. This means that 1.106 crates fit into a 40ft container. Herin the space needed for the pallets is not taken into account.

PREFIX

Every shipping container has a code existing from 4 letters, always ending on a U. This is the prefix and it indicates what company supplied to container. This means that every prefix is unique. Alconet Containers has the prefix ALLU. All prefixes are registered in a database and can also be found online.