News / Box ship in collision with tanker off UK coast

UPDATED TO REMOVE TAILWIND AND ADD COMMENT FROM XENETA.

An oil tanker in the North Sea burst into flames this morning after being involved in a collision with a box ship. One crew member is missing, while the other 32 were rescued.

Details are still emerging, but as The Loadstar went to press, a spokesperson for HM Coastguard confirmed the alarm had been raised at 9.48am on Monday after the US-flagged MV Stena Immaculate was struck while at anchor in the Humber estuary by the Portugal-flagged Solong.

The tanker, managed by Crowley in the US, arrived from the Greek port of Agioi Theodoroi with jet fuel onboard, owned by the US government which had chartered the ship.

Crowley said in a statement on X the vessel sustained a ruptured cargo tank. The fuel is now in the North Sea.

Details have yet to be officially confirmed, but an image from VesselFinder shows the 800-teu Solong, which operated on a Lidl Tailwind service until October last year, moments before the collision, and this video on The Guardian appears to show both ships ablaze.

The cargo ship was operating a service between Grangemouth, Scotland and Rotterdam, Netherlands. The BBC reported that Solong was carrying sodium cyanide.

Xeneta’s chief analyst, Peter Sand, said: “Comparisons will be made to previous maritime disasters, such as the collapse of Baltimore Bridge last year… but we should be careful not to speculate on the cause of this latest incident. 

“It is vitally important that the industry works together to learn lessons from this incident once the cause is fully investigated and understood,” he urged.  

Mr Sand noted that as this collision is further out to sea, “it is unlikely to have a significant impact on port operations or shipping networks”, unless efforts to deal with the oil spill disrupt ships sailing through the area”. 

He further explained that as the “extremely small” Solong is only 840 teu, it won’t take noticeable capacity out of the market. 

“While the Solong is a small vessel compared to most container ships, it could still be carrying cargo worth millions of dollars that is danger of being lost along with the vessel itself,” he concluded.