Monopoly fears as MSC buys into Vizhinjam Port
Container transhipment momentum at India’s Vizhinjam Port is set to accelerate, with global liner leader ...
UPDATED 1630 (BST): Tehran and Washington are seemingly intent on outdoing one another on the high seas, with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) announcing this morning it had not only fired on three MSC box ships that yesterday escaped the Persian Gulf, but had seized two – although this has been questioned.
UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said it had been informed by the master of a containership that an IRGC gunboat had approached and fired on the vessel, causing “heavy damage to the bridge”.
Shortly after, the UK authority said the master of another outbound cargo ship reported having been fired on, with the vessel “now stopped in the water”, but it did not confirm this was another container vessel.
These announcements were followed by the IRGC claim it had attacked a third vessel and “seized” two – believed to be the MSC Francesca and the Greek-owned Epaminondas, also operating for MSC.
However, the Greek Foreign Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis told CNN that while the vessel had been severely damaged, it had not been seized.
Adding further intrigue, a shipping consultant told The Loadstar that MSC Francesca’s status was showing as “Stopped” near Sirik, Iran, with Epaminondas also appearing to be drifting around Sirik.
Iranian news services indicated that the third vessel was the 2,500 teu Panama-flagged Euphoria, which they said had been grounded off the Iran coast following the attack.
With neither MSC nor UKMTO yet to confirm the identity of the vessels involved, efforts by The Loadstar to verify the ships’ names have also proved inconclusive, but AIS imagining supplied by Vespucci Maritime CEO Lars Jensen infers that these are the ships involved.
Iran’s state Telegram channel said the Francesca and the Epaminondas had been “operating without authorisation” and had been moved to Iranian waters to undergo “inspection of their cargo, documents, and records”.
The escape had been made possible by the ships turning off their AIS transponders until they were safely out of the Arabian Sea, indicating that as the US has expanded its naval reach, so too has Tehran.
The IRGC claimed the vessels caught up in today’s developments had committed “repeated violations”, including having left the Strait of Hormuz “in secret”, promising “firm action” against others that violate its closure of the waterway.
This story will be updated as more information comes to light.
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