Cape storms: Cargo ship loses 44 containers in rough seas

Ships sailing around the southern tip of Africa are wrestling with a bout of bad weather that has already run one vessel aground and seen another lose more than 40 containers overboard.

French shipping group CMA CGM said its ship, the CMA CGM Benjamin Franklin, last week lost 44 containers as a result of unexpectedly strong weather conditions off the South African coast, with another 30 damaged. AP Moller - Maersk A/S said a ship had also been delayed arriving into Cape Town due to unfavourable sailing.

Storms near the African coastline are playing havoc with the key route that vessels have been using to avoid attack by Yemen’s Houthi militants in the Red Sea. Container ships in particular have diverted thousands of miles around the continent, instead of running the gauntlet. Traffic near South Africa should soon return to normal with weather conditions set to improve.

One ship ran aground northwest of Cape Town early last week as a result of the adverse weather, and is awaiting salvage near the country’s waters.

The impact also shows up in data tracking how ships arrived at the Cape of Good Hope, Africa’s southern tip. The number of deep sea cargo vessels arriving there last week slipped to 18, the fewest for any single day since at least October, according to Clarkson Research Services, a unit of the world’s largest shipbroker.

Vessel tracking data showed that some of the affected vessels paused their journeys to wait for the bad weather to pass. Other ships appear to have taken wider routes around the African coast.