Two ships collide at Pakistan’s deepest port, suspending sea traffic (VIDEOS)

KARACHI - The sea traffic at the South Asia Port Terminal (SAPT) remained suspended on Monday after two container vessels collided at Karachi port.

Nearly a dozen of containers fell into the sea after Hapeg-Lloyd's ship Tolten and Hamburg Bay collided at the Pakistan’s deepest port, the local media reported.

The administration of the deep port, however, managed to avert possible damage to the cranes installed at the berth through a timely operation.

Video footage of the incident, recorded by a worker at the port, has since been released on social media and shows damage.

Today 2 Ships accident in Karachi Port (South Asia Terminal) pic.twitter.com/2iB5PqC5Yw

— Muhammad Rashid (@Maroot337) March 19, 2018

A special operation has been launched to pull out the fallen containers from the sea.

WTF just happened at Karachi port ... pic.twitter.com/woCC37YU05

— omar r quraishi (@omar_quraishi) March 19, 2018

No one was injured in Monday’s incident at SAPT, a subsidiary of Hutchison Port Holdings of Hong Kong commissioned last year, and port operations were not suspended, the terminal operator said.

Pakistan’s two key oil importing facilities at Karachi Port and Port Qasim are facing extreme congestion because of port constraints and increasing road and sea transport, resulting in economic loss and higher financial costs.

The Karachi port has handled more ships during July-December of the current fiscal year, with a total of 1,066 vessels called at the port, as against 957 ships handled in the same period last year.

During the first six months of the current fiscal, the port handled 484 containers ships, 125 bulk cargo vessels, 172 general cargo ships and 285 oil tankers.