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.”
Photo: Screen grab from Asia Tech’s X account
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.
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
RSS