CMA CGM has declared Force Majeure on shipments to and from the Port of Baltimore following the collapse of the Francis Scott Bridge after it was hit by the containership Dali.

The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) shared data from Dali’s Voyage Data Recorder (VDR) on the minutes prior to contact with the Francis Scott Key Bridge.

In the aftermath of the bridge strike at Baltimore, Maryland, participants from all across the maritime spectrum have been weighing in regarding potential impacts on supply chains, and on US infrastructure matters generally.

The outfall of the fateful allision between the 9,971 TEU container ship, Dali, and Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge in the early hours of March 26 could last ‘many years’ and test global shipping’s mutual insurance system to its limits...

The crew of the container vessel Dali prevented further casualties by issuing a mayday signal as the ship lost power and control on the approach to the Francis Scott Key Bridge.

The terrible vessel allision at Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge - part of the I-695 motorway over the Patapsco River - will leave the Port of Baltimore closed for an indeterminate, but certainly considerable, length of time. 

Casualties are feared after container vessel Dali struck a support column on the Francis Scott Key Bridge in the US city of Baltimore leading to the bridge's complete collapse.

For anyone other than those on the receiving end of containership freight rates, the dawn of each new day brings an absence of good news in this increasingly hazardous world.

Eight crew are reported dead with a further two still missing following the capsizing of a South Korean chemical tanker off the coast of Japan at around 7am local time on 20 March.

Following the accident involving the YM Witness which demolished several cranes in the Port of Evyap the Taiwanese line says there were no injuries or pollution as a result.