The Borkum arrived back at Christmas Island yesterday, February 24th, and was able to secure to the outer mooring buoys and discharge 15 containers before the weather deteriorated and the ship was required to depart Flying Fish Cove.
At the earlier call last week the ship managed to also discharge 15 reefers at the crane berth, making a total of 30 containers discharged so far.
The weather has deteriorated overnight, with no possibility of discharging containers today. The weather forecast is not good with a tropical low passing to the south of the island, which has the ability of turning into a cyclone.
With little chance of discharging the containers in the near conceivable future and the prospect of having the ship wait at Christmas Island for an indeterminate amount of time, ASC Liner Service’s has made the decision to depart Christmas Island and proceed to Singapore.
Unfortunately discussions between ASC Liner Services and the Commonwealth could not come to any resolution, and the Commonwealth have made it clear they will not assist or contribute any costs towards detention charges or any other costs associated with delays in unloading containers at Christmas Island. ASC Liner Service’s decision to depart Christmas Island will hopefully help to reduce overall detention charges and thus reduce detention charges which we will have to pass onto shippers.
A revised shipping schedule will be sent out once the ship arrives at Singapore.
