A cargo ship that was abandoned in the middle of the Pacific Ocean after catching fire Tuesday was carrying cars from several Chinese automakers, according to people familiar with the matter.
The Morning Midas was shipping around 3,000 cars from a range of manufacturers including Chery Automobile Co. and Great Wall Motor Co. to Mexico. It’s unclear at this stage which brand’s electric vehicle caught fire, the people said, who asked not to be identified discussing preliminary findings.
The eastern Chinese city of Yantai, the port where the ship originated, also has a SAIC Motor Corp.-GM plant that produces the Buick Envision model, while the charterer of the vessel has been reported by local media to be Anji Logistics, a subsidiary of SAIC.
Smoke was first seen coming from a deck of the vessel on Tuesday, whose cargo included about 800 EVs. The crew initiated firefighting procedures but the blaze couldn’t be brought under control. Responders were deployed to support salvage and firefighting operations, the ship’s manager Zodiac Maritime said in a statement.
The US Coast Guard, which said the fire aboard the ship occurred approximately 300 miles south of Adak Island in Alaska, evacuated all 22 crew members and transferred them to a nearby merchant ship.
Great Wall Motor had about 140 cars on the ship, although none of them were battery EVs and were not located at the deck where the fire started, one of the people said.
A representative from Chery declined to comment. Great Wall Motor didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Calls and an email to Anji Logistics weren’t answered.
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