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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | February 2006 
Crane Removes Containers to Lighten Grounded Vessel
 Sandra Dibble - San Diego Union-Tribune
| | A large crawler crane working on a newly constructed rock-and-sand jetty lifts a container off the APL Panama. (Charlie Neuman/Union-Tribune) |
The container vessel APL Panama, stranded since Christmas Day off an Ensenada beach, now has its own jetty.
Salvors commissioned the 500-foot rock-and-sand ramp and hired a giant crane to carry containers ashore. The operation is the latest in a series of attempts to lighten the ship's load and get it floating again.
Weighed down by cargo and pinned in by sand, the 880-foot APL Panama has refused to leave the broad sandy beach where it ran aground more than seven weeks ago.
The ship was on a trans-Pacific route, and its cargo included electronic components for Baja California manufacturing plants as well as parts for car factories in central Mexico. The delay in delivery prompted Nissan, the Japanese car manufacturer, to stop producing vehicles for three days last week at its Aguascalientes facility.
Led by Florida-based Titan Maritime LLC, salvage efforts since the grounding reportedly have succeeded in moving the bow 35 degrees, about a third of the distance necessary to pull it away from shore. A major effort late last month involved six tugboats and a barge equipped with hydraulic pullers, with a combined capacity of more than 80,000 horsepower.
Yesterday, as onlookers gazed from a distance, containers were hooked to the crane and lifted off the ship. The crane swung each container over to a waiting truck, where a worker maneuvered it into place.
The Baja California construction company Amaya Curiel y Cia S.A. de C.V. built the jetty. Company President Roberto Curiel said yesterday the 300-ton crawler crane, with a 250-foot boom, has been working around the clock since Sunday, and moving up to 60 containers per day. About 1,500 containers were on board yesterday, said Mike Hanson, spokesman for the ship's owner.
Leaders of the salvage effort had hoped they wouldn't have to resort to the costly land-based operation. They initially relied on a Sikorsky Sky Crane helicopter to remove some of the lighter containers from the ship. But many of the boxes weigh more than the helicopter's 20,000-pound carrying capacity.
Titan Maritime executives have told local officials that they are also hoping to bring in a more powerful helicopter, a Russian-made Mil-25 to lift the heavy containers. But the helicopter had yet to make an appearance yesterday.
Capt. José Luis Ríos Hernández, Ensenada's harbor master, said renewed pulling efforts are expected during the next few days. Salvage workers must not only remove cargo, but also find ways to remove the sand that is trapping the vessel.
Meanwhile, the delay has had its consequences in central Mexico. Nissan was missing parts that were in about 100 containers, and as a result, did not produce vehicles on Jan. 30, 31 and Feb. 1 at its 5,000-employee facility in Aguascalientes, said Fred Standish, director of corporate communications for Nissan North America Inc. Alternative supplies were found, and production resumed last Thursday, Standish said. “It's been running full steam ever since.”
Staff writer Diane Lindquist contributed to this report from Ensenada. Sandra Dibble: (619) 293-1716; sandra.dibble@uniontrib.com |
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