Operations at the South Asia Port Terminal (SAPT) was suspended on Monday afternoon as two large containers'' vessels collided at Karachi port. According to details, the incident took place when Hapeg-Lloyd''s ship Toltan struck at anchored ship Hamburg Bay while maneuvering on arrival, felling around two dozen containers (majority of them were damaged) overboard. Resultantly, operations at SAPT immediately suspended. No information yet on damages sustained by both large containers'' vessels while administration of the deep port managed to avert possible damage to the cranes through a timely operation.
When contacted, CEO SAPT Rashid Jamil said that details regarding the damages were yet to be ascertained as the survey was underway. He said that the operations at SAPT have been resumed after the removal of containers from the sea.
However, SAPT in its official statement stated that there were no injuries in the incident however a few containers were damaged and the terminal was working with authorities concerned to resolve incident related issues and assured full support to its customers in this regard. Meanwhile, Arshad Jamal chairman supreme council All Pakistan Customs Agents Association (APCAA) urged the authorities to fix the responsibilities of the incident in order to provide compensation to the importers against damages.
However, sources said that importers following the said incident bore huge financial losses and they would remain unable to get compensation against damages from the authorities as majority of containers were not insured and under-invoiced as well.
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