Do you have cargo insurance?

On December 7th, NYK ship management reported that the 14,000TEU containership ONE Apus suffered a container collapse on a voyage from Yantian, China to Long Beach, California. Approximately 1,600 nautical miles northwest of Hawaii the vessel encountered a violent storm cell with gale-force winds, causing the ship to roll severely. Reports from the ship, which has diverted off course but is yet to make it to port, state that around 1,900 containers, including 40 dangerous goods containers were involved with the collapse but the damages are yet to be fully assessed.

According to the rule of General Average:

 The equitable practice whereby all the merchants whose cargo landed safely would be called on to contribute a portion, based upon a share or percentage, to the merchant or merchants whose goods had been tossed overboard to avert imminent peril. 

Courtesy of Wikipedia

Accidents happen and there are many things that can go wrong during an ocean voyage and that’s why we at Nelson International strongly encourage our clients to discuss cargo insurance with us. Are you covered in case of an accident, emergency, act of God or force majeure? Do you have contingencies for delays, diversions or rolled bookings? Talk to us. Let us know the full scope of your supply chain and see the solutions we have that can mitigate your exposure during accidents or major market disruptions like the congestion plaguing the U.S. west coast.

It’s our privilege to be your beacon of information to protect your business as much as we can. We can’t predict the future but we can take steps to insulate our clients from the accidents and happenings that can devastate a shipper.