MV X-Press Pearl: Incorrect claims regarding the ship are being circulated
Posted on May 27th, 2021
Courtesy Hiru News
The owner of the distressed vessel X-Press Pearl, X-Press Feeders stated today (27) that the reports of which that the container ship was denied entry to Hazira Port in India and Hamad Port in Qatar are incorrect.
Explaining further, they noted that the ship had undergone discharge and loading operations in both ports before continuing on its planned journey to Colombo.
The ship had appealed to both ports to offload the container that was leaking nitric acid at the time, however, advice given was there were no specialist facilities or expertise immediately available to deal with the leaking acid.
Meanwhile, Executive Chairman of the company, Tim Hartnoll said that poor packaging was responsible for the acid leak, which the crew had detected while in the Arabian Sea thousands of kilometres away from Sri Lanka.
The biggest threat to container shipping is a fire onboard on ships,” Hartnoll further emphasized.
While salvage teams assisted by Sri Lankan and Indian military forces fight to minimize damage, acid and fuel are thought to have spilled into the sea, and the ship’s owner is anticipating that the insured vessel will be declared a total loss.
Meanwhile, sharing a message on Twitter, the High Commission of India in Colombo, Sri Lanka stated that the raging fire of the MV X-Press Pearl has largely been controlled.