Maersk Eindhoven waiting to clear into Yokohama
Storm-battered container ship currently circling in Japanese waters after major box spill in Pacific.
The 13,092 teu, Maersk Eindhoven, is waiting to clear into APM terminals in Yokohama, Japan after losing a large number of containers overboard last week. Maersk says the 2010-built ship lost propulsion for three to four minutes in heavy seas, resulting in the loss of 260 containers and the damage of 65.
Propulsion was quickly restored to the vessel and initial analysis suggest a faulty oil-pressure switch may have been to blame. Maersk says that all repairs can be performed in Yokohama and that the Eindhoven will resume normal TP6 service routing and proceed to Los Angeles.
The Eindhoven’s sister ship, the Essen, is now en route to Los Angeles after putting into the Mexican port of Lazaro Cardenas. The Essen suffered an even greater loss of containers than the Eindhoven, losing 750 overboard. There have now been six reported cases of boxes lost at sea in the space of just 79 days.
The single greatest loss in 2020 was from the Ocean Network Express (ONE) Apus which lost 1,800 containers in a storm in the north Pacific. The Apus is still in the port of Kobe and has yet to resume operations. ONE suggests that that the Apus ought to be able to re-enter service in the middle of March.