MOL Charisma suffers fire off Sri Lanka

A Bahamas-flagged Post-Panamax containership caught fire approximately 250 miles east from Colombo, Sri Lanka, on 1 September.

The ship in question is the 8,110 TEU MOL Charisma, deployed in Hapag-Lloyd’s Pacific South 3 (PS3) service.

As informed, the fire started in the ship’s No. 5 cargo hold during MOL Charisma’s voyage from Port Kelang, Malaysia to Nhava Sheva, India.

“The fire is under control after discharging CO2 into No.5 Cargo hold and the vessel is currently in Colombo, Sri Lanka, awaiting inspection,” Hapag-Lloyd said.

The company further said that the incident did not cause any injuries to the ship’s crew. Additionally, there is no pollution reported.

“Ship’s crew are closely monitoring the situation. We are also currently evaluating any potential impact on vessel and cargo operations and berthing dates for the subsequent ports of the rotation as vessel schedule will be changed, as this vessel, after completion of the PS3 voyage, was originally scheduled to be deployed in our Indamex service between the Indian Subcontinent and the U.S. East Coast,” according to Hapag-Lloyd.

“The Indamex voyage will instead be performed by the MOL Courage.”

MOL Charisma, previously known as APL France, was built in Japan in 2007. Owned by MOL, the boxship is operated by Singapre-based Ocean Network Express (ONE), VesselsValue’s data shows.