News / OOCL ship loses 57 containers overboard en route to Long Beach

Photo: VesselFinder

The OOCL Sunflower, a 16,800 teu ship, lost 57 containers overboard while sailing from Taiwan’s Kaohsiung port to Long Beach.

Adverse weather was blamed for the incident, and a damage assessment will be done after the ship arrives at Long Beach tomorrow, 12 March.

The incident happened south of the Aleutian Islands chain, in the northern part of the Pacific Ocean, on 3 March and the US Coast Guard disclosed the incident yesterday.

OOCL Sunflower departed Kaohsiung on 23 February and encountered inclement weather in the Pacific.

Besides the 57 lost containers, an undisclosed number of boxers on deck were damaged or moved due to the weather’s violent impact.

The crew on OOCL Sunflower were unable to make a final assessment of the damage due to safety concerns, and they plan to conduct a full evaluation in Long Beach.

However, no overboard discharge of material or damage below the waterline was observed.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, an agency of the US Department of Commerce that monitors weather, said it was reviewing the cargo manifest of the vessel.

The 2025-built vessel was delivered from Dalian Cosco KHI Ship Industry and has since been deployed on the Ocean Alliance’s PSW6 transpacific service, linking ports in Vietnam, China, and Taiwan with Long Beach.

The string is served by seven OOCL vessels with an average capacity of 15,600 teu, making the OOCL Sunflower the largest on the rotation.