We have learned of an incident involving a collision between the vessels NORTHERN JASPER and SAFMARINE MERU, approximately 15 nautical miles off Langgan Mountain Isles, China.

NORTHERN JASPER is a Liberia flag, 2009 built, 94,407gt fully cellular containership, on a voyage from Daesan, South Korea, to Yangshan, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Chiwan. She has a 8,400 TEU capacity and is owned by Norddeutsche Reederei NAV. Following the collision, the vessel continued under her own steam.

SAFMARINE MERU is a Hong Kong flag, 2006 built, 50,686gt fully cellular containership, deployed on Maersk Lines TP18 service between Far Eastern ports and US Gulf. At the time of the collision, the vessel was en route from Qingdao to Ningbo in China and is reported to have had fewer than 400 full containers onboard. SAFMARINE MERU suffered damage and caught fire. Her crew were evacuated and placed onboard salvage tugs. She remains afloat and anchored whilst firefighting continues. Chinese authorities are in attendance.

It is possible that owners of SAFMARINE MERU will declare General Average and, if W.E. Cox Claims Group can be of assistance in providing guarantees, arranging surveys, adjusting potential losses or undertaking recovery please do not hesitate to contact us.