The ONE Apus, operated by Ocean Network Express, is preparing to depart Japan following operations to unload collapsed and damaged containers after its record-breaking cargo loss in the Pacific Ocean last year.
A statement was issued in recent days indicating that the vessel is tentatively scheduled to depart Kobe around March 15. If so, the vessel would have an arrival date in Long Beach around March 30, however, ONE cautions that the schedule is subject to change and is not guaranteed.
ONE said the overall plan is to reload as many of the original sound and transshipment containers as possible back onto the ONE APUS. “It is likely that some containers originally transported on the ONE APUS may have to be transported on different vessels due to safety and/or operational constraints. Some containers may also be transported on different vessels if the required documentation cannot be completed by the deadline,” the company said in its latest Notice.
The ONE Apus was traveling from China to Long Beach, California, when it lost some 1,816 containers overboard due to bad weather about 1,600 nautical miles northwest of Hawaii on Nov. 30. Hundreds of them collapsed on deck.
The vessel arrived in Kobe, Japan, on December 8, where cargo operations and possible repairs were carried out. A February 26 ONE update said that a total of 940 boxes had been unloaded to date.
The incident was the worst in a series of weather-related cargo losses on the trans-Pacific route this season, as fully loaded vessels arrive in the United States from China.
According to a November report by the World Shipping Council, an average of 1,382 containers are lost at sea each year from some 5,000 active container ships, but the figure can vary widely when catastrophic events such as the ONE Apus cargo loss are taken into account.
The ONE Apus, registered in Japan, operates on Ocean Network Express’ Far East Pacific 2 (FP2) service and has a capacity of 14,000 twenty-foot equivalent containers, or TEUs. No general average was declared in the accident.
