New | No refuge in Asia for distressed Hong Kong chemical tanker
Dilemma facing Hong Kong-registered ship highlights the holes in international safe-haven rules
A fire-ravaged ship loaded with hazardous chemicals has become a maritime football in the north Pacific, with Japan and South Korea unwilling to give it refuge even though they risk a wider environmental disaster if it sinks.
The plight of the Maritime Maisie, a chemical tanker which has spent seven weeks being towed in waters between the two Asian neighbours, highlights the lack of global consensus on designating ports as safe-havens for ships in distress.
The two countries are worried about the risk of a spill or environmental pollution at port, sources said.
The tanker, a 44,000 deadweight-tonne vessel the size of nearly two football fields, collided with another ship nine nautical miles off Busan, South Korea, on December 29, said Ying Jinghua, fleet director of MSI Ship Management, which manages the tanker’s day-to-day operation, and other shipping sources.
The accident caused a fire when a cargo tank holding the chemical acrylonitrile ruptured. The ship, owned by Aurora Tankers, part of Singapore’s IMC Group, was carrying 29,337 tonnes of acrylonitrile, used to make plastics and synthetic rubber, and other chemicals, Ying and the sources said.