Further to our customer advisory of 4 January, MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company informs you that the container ship “MSC Zoe” has departed Bremerhaven for Gdansk, having received the required class certificate and release by the port for onward sailing. The estimated arrival time is 2200hrs local time on 18 January.

A small amount of cargo had to be discharged in Bremerhaven due to damage and specific details follow the explanation below.

Background

MSC Zoe had been undergoing cargo operations at the Eurogate Terminal since 4 January following a heavy-weather incident in the North Sea, in which more than 250 containers fell from the vessel. MSC quickly responded to that incident by appointing response teams for a clean-up operation in full collaboration with relevant authorities in the Netherlands and Germany. MSC has been in direct contact with customers who may have had cargo in the containers which fell overboard.

The vessel proceeded to Bremerhaven as planned where the discharge of cargo was done carefully and meticulously, in line with the rules and stipulations of the port authorities. Most of the cargo remained onboard and was not damaged as a result of this incident. Furthermore, the vessel was relatively undamaged and remained operational.

Cargo discharge details

Please be advised of the following specific details of cargo which was discharged in Bremerhaven:

• Only one container for Bremerhaven was affected in the incident.
• All cargo being transported “via” Bremerhaven has also been discharged. Two of those containers were affected: one loaded in Sines and one loaded in Tanjung Pelepas.
• The Tanjung Pelepas cargo, loaded in Sines for Tanjung Pelepas discharge, has been discharged in Bremerhaven for further connection to destination.
• The discharge of damaged containers destined for Gdansk has been completed.

In all these cases, the local MSC agent will contact the customers concerned directly for details and give further advice, based on the inspections of containers in the yard.

MSC would like to thank customers for their support and understanding and assure everybody that our response to this incident has been quick, appropriate and well received by the authorities monitoring the situation.