Supply chain fears after crash

The ship, named the Dali, hit a support column of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in the early hours of Tuesday morning. The bridge spanned the entrance to the Port of Baltimore, the busiest port in the US for car exports. More than 750,000 cars and vehicles passed through Baltimore in the last year. Baltimore is the busiest US port for car shipments.

It is also the largest US port by volume for handling farm and construction machinery. US, UK and EU brands such as General Motors, Ford, Jaguar Land Rover, Nissan, Fiat, and Audi use the port. US Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg said there was no question that this will be a major and protracted impact to supply chains. Baltimore is one of the smallest container ports in the north-east US.

It handled 265,000 containers in the fourth quarter of last year. The Port of New York and New Jersey handled about 2 million containers. The flow of containers to Baltimore can probably be redistributed to bigger ports. The US Coast Guard has suspended its search and rescue operation and begun a recovery mission for the missing people.

Danish shipping giant Maersk, whose cargo the Dali was carrying, said it would be “omitting Baltimore on all our services for the foreseeable future. A number of rail and coal companies have also warned their customers of disruption to coal exports. The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore said the ship’s certificates were valid at the time of the incident. The ship had passed two separate foreign port state inspections in June and September 2023.

Synergy Marine Group, which manages the Dali, said there were 22 people on the ship, including an all-Indian crew and two US harbour pilots, but no reports of any injuries.