Amazingly, two explosions aboard two seperate container ships occurred within three days of each other during the past week, with both vessels being docked at Asian ports.
The most notable happened at China’s Ningbo Zhoushan port last Thursday, when a container of dangerous goods exploded aboard the Yang Ming Mobility.
Following the deafening explosion, emergency response teams were mobilised in response and luckily, there were no casualties incurred. However,the terminal has remained closed ever since, which has led to delays at the port.
The dangerous goods product is understood to have been a class 5.2 organic peroxide, which is a highly combustible reactive chemical that can cause heat to rise when outside temperature increase.
In many cases, subsequent sailing schedules for the port have already being adjusted, and there is an ongoing fear that longer term delays and congestion may be witnessed through Ningbo in the coming weeks.
Three days later, at the port of Colombo in Sri Lanka, a fire broke out on the MSC Capetown when it was also dockside. The fire continued to blaze below deck and eventually led to a container explosion onboard. The crew were led to safety by fast acting firefighters to avoid what could have been another catastrophic event.
