TERRY HUTSON SOME 220 containers on board Ocean Africa Container Lines’ vessel Umfolozi had to be discharged after the ship sank at her Walvis Bay berth at the weekend. Earlier Umfolozi had collided with the Richards Bay dredger Ingwenya as she was sailing from port, bound for Cape Town. The dredger, which was inbound at the time, incurred light damage but Umfolozi immediately began taking in water and returned to port where she successfully berthed at the container terminal. Shortly afterwards the 8 328-gt ship settled on the bottom of the harbour seabed, fortunately with her decks and superstructure remaining above the waterline. The collision occurred a few minutes before midnight last Friday (September 16). There were no injuries on either vessel and by Saturday morning dock workers were hard at work discharging the cargo. The ship, which was carrying 220t of HFO and 115t of MDO was leaking oil but this has been contained with the use of booms placed hurriedly in position. Andrew Thomas, Ocean Africa’s business development executive, says he is confident the integrity of the regular service can be maintained. He said that while Ocean Africa might have to revise its scheduling, it already had the mv Louis in service as an additional ship. Another new vessel, which will be named Limpopo, will arrive on charter towards the end of October. New look Safcor Panalpina is born SAFCOR PANALPINA has rebranded, refocused and resourced to strengthen its commitment to a new era of supply chain solutions, a major step in a process initiated almost a decade ago.
