BALTIMORE BRIDGE
Who are Synergy Marine Group, the company that manages the ship responsible for Baltimore bridge collapse?
The Dali, the Singapore-flagged container ship that collided with the Francis Scott Key Bridge, was travelling from Baltimore to Sri Lanka.
The Dali, the Singapore-flagged container ship that has caused the collapse of a major Baltimore bridge, is managed by Synergy Marine Group, a firm based in the Southeast Asian city state.
“Leading shipmanager”
On its website, Synergy Marine Group describes itself as a “leading shipmanager”, noting that it has “660+ vessels under technical management”. “We handle a wide variety of vessels,” the company adds. Although headquartered in Singapore, the group is present worldwide, with offices in 14 countries.
While the Dali is managed by Synergy Marine Group, it is owned by Grace Ocean Pte Ltd, also Singapore-based. According to Bloomberg, Grace Ocean’s business “includes providing miscellaneous water transportation services”.
Video - Baltimore bridge collapses after ship collision:
Ship travelling from US to Sri Lanka
The Dali collided with Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge in the early hours of Tuesday morning, causing its almost total collapse. According to the shipping data service Marine Traffic, the Dali was travelling from Baltimore to Colombo, Sri Lanka.
The logistics company Maersk has said that it had chartered the ship for the trip to Sri Lanka, the BBC has revealed. “We can confirm that the container vessel ‘DALI’, operated by charter vessel company Synergy Group, is time chartered by Maersk and is carrying Maersk customers’ cargo,” the company said in a statement.
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“Mass casualty event”
Speaking to CNN, the director of communications of the Baltimore City Fire Department, Kevin Cartwright, described the collapse of the 1.6-mile-long bridge as a “mass casualty event”, revealing that at least 20 people are believed to have fallen into the water.
Per Reuters, Synergy Marine Group says all its crew members, including the two pilots, have been accounted for.
In a statement provided to media outlets, the company said: “Whilst the exact cause of the incident is yet to be determined, the Dali has now mobilised its qualified individual incident response service.”