The Marshall Islands-flagged vehicle carrier Min Jiang Kou, which has sat unmanned and without power off Panama since an engine-room fire crippled it on August 6, saw a renewed temperature rise on its decks on the night of September 7, according to the Panama Maritime Authority (AMP). Three tugboats deployed by salvage firm Resolve Marine resumed cooling operations on the hull as specialists worked to determine the cause of the flare-up and assess the vessel’s structural condition. The 72,255-gross-ton, 2024-built ship, operated by COSCO Shipping Specialized Carriers, has capacity for roughly 7,500 vehicles and uses LNG dual-fuel propulsion across its 13 decks, including four rise-and-fall car decks.
The vessel originally caught fire about 630 nautical miles south of Costa Rica while sailing from Shanghai to Manta, Ecuador, prompting all 22 crew members to abandon ship into lifeboats; they were rescued by the passing bulk carrier Jin Hai Ping in a US Coast Guard-coordinated operation and taken to Akita, Japan. Salvors had stabilized the hulk and begun towing it toward Panama as an initial stop en route to a shipyard in Asia for repairs, but the fresh hot spot detected on its decks has again put those plans on hold. The AMP said no environmental impact from either the original fire or the latest incident has been reported, and the authority continues to monitor the salvage operation alongside the specialist contractor handling the case.
Source: The Maritime Executive
