Salvors clear above-deck Napoli cargo

Most problems arise with consolidated cargo
EFFORTS TO salvage the SAbound
cargo from the wrecked
container ship, MSC Napoli,
are going ahead slowly but
surely.
This after the 275-metre
long vessel of some
62 000-tonnes, and carrying
containers from Europe to SA
in January, suffered damage
to her hull in severe gale
force nine winds – and was
deliberately grounded in Lyme
Bay off the coast of Dorset in
the UK.
Since the incident, the
salvors have already cleared all
the containers stacked above
deck and have removed 81
containers from the underdeck
cargo – leaving about 970
containers still to be retrieved.
And the news for SA
cargo owners and insurance
underwriters is somewhat
better at this stage.
According to Andrew
Robinson, maritime specialist
at Durban lawyers Deneys
Reitz, the figures he had
available to him showed that
about 0% of the cargo in the
81-TEUs already recovered
from the holds is salvageable.
“This,” he told FTW,
“because a lot of it was packed
in such a way as to survive
the elements – like drummed
cargo – and other resistant
products like steel plate.”
But the bad news of the
moment is that the main
delays in re-shipping the
salvaged cargo on to SA are
being experienced by people
with consolidated cargoes.
The problem is that
the consolidators have to
deconsolidate the containers,
assess the salvageability
of the cargoes, and then
reconsolidate the saved goods
for onward movement to SA.
It’s not only a clumsy
sentence to say, according
to Robinson, but a slowmoving
procedure – with
many of the consignments in
consols uninsured, and cargo
owners having to be traced
and persuaded to pay the
necessary salvage guarantee
before the goods can be reshipped.
But MSC is playing its
part in making cargo details
more available. “If the cargo
was being shipped in an MSC
container, and against an MSC
bill of lading, cargo owners
can track the location of their
consignment on the shipping
line’s website,” Robinson said.