“Out with the old, in with the new” is a popular thing to say around this time of year. While it might usually be in reference to fresh starts, new season clothing or even a neat little bargain you picked up on Black Friday it can also apply to shipping cranes, apparently. At least, it does in Taiwan where a ship delivering new cranes to a port hit and destroyed the old one.
A 230-foot tall ship to shore crane at the Keelung Port in Taiwain was due to be replaced later this year, reports World Cargo News. As such, a vessel arrived into the port earlier this month with a new crane loaded on board.
However, while the Yuzhou Qi Hang docked in Keelung on October 14, the hulking mass of the new crane collided with the out-of-action old crane and knocked it over, as World Cargo News reports:
Video footage from the incident shows that a loaded STS crane on the vessel struck an existing onshore crane while the vessel was berthing. The heavy load vessel Yuzhou Qi Hang, was being assisted by a tugboat and was maneuvering slowly into position when the collision occurred. Three STS cranes were loaded on Yuzhou Qi Hang at the time of its arrival at the port and were intended for the port’s West Coast Container Terminal.
Although there were some people in the area at the time, thankfully, no injuries were reported. Local media reports indicate that damage was confined to five containers as the crane fell onto containers at the pier during the incident. Local authorities have launched an investigation into the cause of the collision.
Understandably, the collapse of the 750-ton crane has somewhat “disrupted container shipping operations” adds Newsweek, which reported that ships entering the port were now being redirected to other berths while the cleanup operation was ongoing.
The new $9.3 million crane was due to be installed at the facility in Taiwan once the old equipment had been safely removed. Now, workers will analyze the new crane following the impact to check for any damage that may have been caused as a result of the collision.
Following the safety checks, evaluations for compensation for the damage caused could follow.
October was a pretty bad month for ships, it seems, as a replica 16th century ship drifted into a bridge after losing power and a round-the-world cruise was halted just days into its voyage over missing paperwork.
