Maersk lost about 750 boxes on this ship, and restrictions on container bundling and stacking have been concerned

After another container ship lost a large number of containers in the Pacific Ocean, the industry also called for urgent review of container bundling practices and stacking restrictions.

According to the carrier, the 13,092 teu "Maersk Essen" on its way from China to Los Angeles lost approximately 750 containers in the wind on Saturday. The round was deployed on the 2M Alliance Asia to the West Coast route of the United States, namely Maersk's TP6 service and MSC's Pearl service.

Maersk stated that “all crew members are safe and detailed cargo assessment is in progress” and the ship will continue to sail.

According to FleetMon's report, as many as 100 containers were found floating in the northwestern part of Honolulu. Most of them are in a submerged state, but they still pose a threat to small ships.

This is the third serious incident of this kind on the trade route in less than two months. The loss of more than 1,800 containers by ONE Apus on November 30 is the largest.
According to a report issued by the World Shipping Council in November last year, of the approximately 5,000 container ships in operation, only 1,382 containers are lost at sea each year on average.

Maersk said: "We believe this is a very serious situation and will be investigated quickly and thoroughly. In the future, any necessary measures will be taken to minimize the risk of similar incidents."

However, with the increasing frequency and severity of severe weather, especially in the Pacific region, there is no doubt that the current practice of strapping and securing containers on large container ships is no longer applicable.

The container ship may experience violent rolling and rolling, and a phenomenon called parametric rolling, that is, the rolling of the ship can reach 30-40 degrees or even more. This powerful force can easily break the straps and locks of 10-foot-tall container stacks, causing the containers to fall into the sea and damage the remaining containers.

A report issued by the Marine Accident Investigation Bureau (MAIB) last year investigated the loss of 137 containers in the Pacific by 13460 teu CMA CGM Washington flying the British flag in January 2018, and concluded that the collapse of the container pile was Caused by many factors, including excessive rack loading.

In addition, a paper recently published in the Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology concluded that due to the risks associated with the dynamic stability of container ships, including parametric roll, new container ships It may have the characteristics of smaller cargo volume compared with existing ships. Existing ships are very likely to be forced to reduce the amount of cargo on board or the speed of their operations.