MOL Comfort investigations include other boxship designs

After a Japanese government committee studying the cause of the MOL Comfort casualty failed to find the cause in its report issued on 17 December 2013, ClassNK is undertaking a wider theoretical and actual study of containership designs in an effort to determine the cause.

“We have started a study as to what happens if we apply the same sea conditions to other shipyard designs worldwide, including Korea, Japan and Taiwan,” Yasushi Nakamura, ClassNK executive vice president, told Seatrade Global at Sea Japan 2014 last week. He said they had good cooperation from Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL) and the company had given ClassNK the most precise voyage information available.

“After we complete this analysis we will compare it with the Mitsubishi [Heavy Industries] design, as only the Mitsubishi design have this casualty as of today.”

ClassNK is also offering to inspect the bottom plates of containerships, even if they are with a different classification society to see if there is any deformation. Inspections of the MOL Comfort’s six sisterships found buckling type deformations measuring approximately 20mm in height were observed on the bottom shell plates in the vicinity of centre line of midship area. Nakamura said inspections of other containerships carried out so far had found no deformations of the bottom plates.

ClassNK has a deadline of the end of August this year to finish its investigations, when it plans to issue its report to MOL, the Japanese government and IACS.

ClassNK is also chairing an IACS project that is reviewing the structural requirements of large containerships.

“ClassNK clearly understands what is our responsibility to prevent other containership casualties,” Nakamura said.

The 2008-built MOL Comfort split in two heavy weather it the Indian Ocean in June 2013, it later caught fire and sank.