Germany’s Central Command for Maritime Emergencies said on Thursday that the 400-metre-long Mumbai Maersk ran aground at 11.00 pm local time on 2 February.

Containership Mumbai Maersk grounded outside Bremerhaven, Germany
Caption: Mumbai Maersk after grounding. A first attempt to free the vessel was unsuccessful, a second attempt is expected at around midnight local time. - Sina Schuldt / dpa / Alamy

The vessel was headed from Rotterdam to Bremerhaven when it became stuck around 6 kilometres north of the East Frisian Island of Wangerooge.

Several multipurpose vessels were brought in to dislodge the boxship, however its first attempt failed, a spokesperson for the command said.

There are no injured persons on the vessel.

The operation to bring the ship out is dependent on the tide. The next high tide will be around 1.00 pm local time.

Mumbai Maersk has a capacity of 19,630 TEU and was built in 2018. It sails under the Danish flag.

You can see the Mumbai Maersk current position here

Mumbai Maersk is one of Maersk’s 2nd generation Triple E vessels.

There are 30 people onboard.

Maersk published an advisory report on their website earlier today:

"We can confirm that on 2 February at around 23:00 CET, Mumbai Maersk was grounded outside Bremerhaven, Germany. All crew are safe, there is no pollution and no sign of hull breach. The vessel is on ground on a shallow patch and as such the entrance to the port is not obstructed and port operations is running as normal. Sailing from Asia, the vessel had its last stop in the port of Rotterdam before grounding outside of Bremerhaven. The vessel was on its way to discharge and consequently the cargo meant for Bremerhaven is still onboard, along with cargo destined for the Scandinavian countries.

A first attempt to free the vessel has been performed unsuccessfully. Extra tugs are being deployed and a new attempt is expected at the coming high tide around midnight on 3 February.

If you have cargo onboard, if not already, please expect a customer experience representative to reach out to you shortly.

For cargo in the port of Bremerhaven waiting to be loaded, if the next refloating attempts do not prove to be successful, we will look into alternative means of transport to move this cargo to its intended destinations.

Please do not hesitate to reach out to our teams to discuss alternative solutions for your cargo, but please also give us some time to solve this as effectively as we can, all with the purpose of minimizing the impact to your business. Please also note that our Logistics Hub and interactive map functionality on Maersk.com is powered by AI-powered predictive analysis and real-time data and will allow you to stay up to date with new estimated times of arrival (ETA) across our global network. Click here to login to the Hub.

Your supply chain is of the utmost concern to us and as more information becomes available, we will continue to keep you informed and this web advisory will always hold the most recent updates.”