Containers that have fallen into the sea, a danger passed under the radar

By Julien Bouissou and Marie-Béatrice Baudet

Posted today at 12:37 am, updated at 5:33 am

As far as a shipowner, we’ve never seen that. In recent months, the loss of containers, a discreet evil from which maritime trade suffers, has taken on an exceptional scale. Several ships played Petit Poucet in heavy weather. No less than seven accidents were recorded between October 2020 and February 2021, much less publicized than the blockage of the Suez Canal at the end of March by a giant cargo ship.

In total, nearly 3,100 metal boxes went overboard, mainly in the North Pacific, the fastest passage between Asia and the west coast of the United States but also the most dangerous, with its strong swell and its bad winds.

The captain of the One Apus will not soon forget this weather trap. Departing from the Chinese port of Yantian, the sailor was on his way to California when, on the evening of November 30, 2020, a severe thunderstorm hit his container ship, a building as long as the Eiffel Tower is tall. Increasingly threatening, the waves rolled so powerfully that piles of cargo collapsed. According to figures from the shipowner, 1,816 boxes out of the 14,000 transported fell into the water. And at least 64 of them contained toxic and explosive products, forever engulfed in the ocean floor, some 1,600 nautical miles away. from Hawaii.

“Yes, some of the images we have seen recently are spectacular, who could deny that?, agrees Christine Cabau, member of the staff of the French company CMA CGM, the world’s fourth largest shipowner. Accidents have indeed multiplied, a tragic law of series. But do not forget that 226 million containers pass each year on the seas of the globe and that the falls remain marginal. The phenomenon must be put into perspective. “

The container ship

What do the statistics say? No need to look for an international database, there is none. As for carriers, we readily trust the figures of the World Shipping Council, the voice of the companies that matter. Based on studies carried out since 2008 with its members, the organization claims that 1,382 containers are lost on average each year.

This single-unit accounting makes Charlotte Nithart, spokesperson for the Robin des Bois environmental protection association, smile. “How to believe in such precision? In addition to major events like that of One Apus, it is also necessary to take into account the unreported routine losses. Rather, we believe that several tens of thousands of boxes disappear in the waves each year. “

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