It’s been a tough week for the safety department at the world’s largest containerline, with three of its 20th century-built fleet ships involved in troubling incidents around the world – one shot at by Houthis, another suffering an engine room blaze, and the other knocked out by engine failure.
Starting in Canada, the Canadian Coast Guard has been joined by a team of American firefighters to help douse a blaze that broke out on the 1998-built, 4,688 teu MSC Sao Paolo V late on Sunday night off Les Escoumines in Quebec on the St Lawrence. The severe blaze (pictured right) subsequently spread to the vessel’s accommodation block.
Heading east, the 28-year-old, 5,711 teu MSC Katyani encountered engine failure on February 29 and had to be towed for six days from an area around 300 nautical miles off the coast of Vigo, Spain. The ship finally reached Vigo yesterday (pictured below).
From Europe to the Middle East, MSC has also had to deal with the fallout from one of the Houthis’ more high profile recent attacks.
A video has been published (see below) by the Indian Navy showing the crew of the MSC Sky II putting out the fire after Monday’s attack on the 25-year-old ship, 2,169 teu ship.
putting out the fire after Monday’s attack on the 25-year-old ship, 2,169 teu ship. A specialised firefighting team of 12 personnel from an Indian navy ship also embarked the vessel early morning hours to assist in firefighting efforts.
The missile struck containers in front of the accommodation (lead picture). The fire has now been put out and the vessel is safe in Djibouti.
MSC has been on a historic secondhand vessel spree since August 2020, hoovering up an unprecedented amount of vintage tonnage – adding more than 350 ships.
The line has many records to its name, including the largest orderbook, but also paradoxically the oldest fleet among the top 15 carriers.
According to December data from Linerlytica, the Soren Toft-led line has a fleet with an average age of 16.8 years.
