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Eureka, another container ship en route to Long Beach, delayed

Mechanical problem on Maersk vessel kicks back arrival date for Nike shoes and other sought-after consumer products

A mechanical problem on the Maersk Eureka will delay its arrival at the Port of Long Beach by about three weeks. (Photo: Flickr/kees torn CC BY-SA 2.0)

Nike and other major U.S. importers just got another kick in the shins. The arrival of the Maersk Eureka at the Port of Long Beach, California, will be delayed by about three weeks because of a mechanical problem at sea.

The notice of the latest delay came from MSC Mediterranean Shipping Co., which told customers Thursday, “Maersk has informed us that the container ship Maersk Eureka, deployed on our Sequoia service, had to stop at sea due to a damaged fuel pump.” 

That occurred March 12. Two days later, according to MSC, “the vessel had to stop again to perform additional investigation. The engine remains off in order to reduce further impact.”

MSC said a tugboat carrying a service crew is scheduled to arrive at the scene Sunday. It is estimated that the repairs will not be completed until Wednesday. Weather could be a complicating factor, with MSC reporting “the vessel operator has said it is monitoring lashings as higher winds are expected in the next three to five days, with the tug remaining on standby in case of need.”


A Maersk spokesman told American Shipper the Eureka was holding its position 650 miles off Dutch Harbor, Alaska.

The customer notice pointed out that “no containers have been lost or damaged and all reefers are on power.” But because of the repairs, the Eureka is expected to be 15 to 20 days behind schedule, MSC said.  

The Eureka, with a capacity of 13,092 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) departed Yokohama, Japan, on March 6. It had been scheduled to arrive at the Port of Long Beach this past Monday. 

Ship arrivals at the port routinely have been delayed since an import surge that began late last summer has continued unabated and resulted in historic congestion in San Pedro Bay. There also was the case of the ONE Apus, which lost 1,816 TEUs while en route to Long Beach on Nov. 30 and turned around and returned to Japan.  


On board the Eureka, according to FreightWaves maritime market expert Henry Byers, are at least 15 containers filled with Nike shoes. Other commodities inside containers include pressure washers, tires, dumbbells, luggage, computer desks, patio furniture, fuel filters and hand sanitizer. 

Nike last week blamed kinks in the supply chain for an 11% year-over-year revenue decline, according to FreightWaves’ Andrew Cox. 

In his Point of Sale newsletter, Cox quoted Nike Chief Financial Officer Matt Friend as saying, “Disruption in the global supply chain due to container shortages, transportation delays and port congestion has interrupted the flow of inventory supply.”

Byers said in addition to Nike, top consignees on the Eureka include JD North America, a manufacturer of equipment such as pressure washers; Sentury Tire USA; Icon Health & Fitness; AJ Wholesale Distributors, which handles everything from power tools to pet products; it Luggage, available everywhere from Amazon to Walmart; At Home Procurement, which specializes in wood furniture; Praxair, which has products that include gases as well as welding equipment; Maruchan, a maker of ramen noodles; and Woodard-CM, a producer of outdoor furniture.

MSC and Maersk are members of the 2M Alliance space-sharing cooperative. Vessels utilized for the Sequoia Asia-U.S. service, in addition to the Maersk Eureka, are the MSC Josseline, the MSC Aries and the MSC Savona. The three MSC vessels all sail directly from Shanghai to Long Beach.

Byers said other top consignees for the Sequoia service include Amazon Logistics, De Well Container Shipping, DHL Global Forwarding, Dillard’s, EGA America, Eurybia Logistics, Expeditors International, Headwin Global Logistics, Hecny Transportation, Ikea Supply, JDY International, LF Logistics, Living Spaces Furniture, OEC Shipping, Orly Shoe, Prime Agency, Ross Procurement, Scholastic Inc., Topocean Consolidation, Transgroup Global Logistics and WTO Express. 

The top non-vessel-operating common carriers (NVOCCs) using the service are Apex Maritime, Danmar Lines, Expeditors, Kuehne + Nagel and Orient Express Container Line, Byers said. 

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Click here for more American Shipper/FreightWaves stories by Senior Editor Kim Link-Wills.

2 Comments

  1. Kevin mack

    I read your article on the eureka – being delayed
    2 weeks and I was taken with the fact that the main
    Concern in the story was 15 boxes of nikes were being delayed – maybe a few boxes of power washers .
    I worked in the ss industry for over 40 years
    I was a 20 year veteran of Sealand Service .
    I retired last sept . This ship and this crew are
    Drifting powerless off in the northern pacific
    Off the aleutians – where is the concern for
    The ship – its crew . The fact that someone who probably has 4-5 pairs of sneakers – has to now wait an extra 2 weeks to get his or her new updated pair of nikes is immaterial – meaningless

    People need to get out of their own little worlds
    Their own selfish needs and look around

    Let’s hope this crew makes the repairs at sea
    The ship gets into port in la ok and the. Eventually
    The nikes and all the other cargo gets delivered
    Safely – like it usually does – the other 51 weeks
    Of the year

Comments are closed.

Kim Link Wills

Senior Editor Kim Link-Wills has written about everything from agriculture as a reporter for Illinois Agri-News to zoology as editor of the Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine. Her work has garnered awards from the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education, the Georgia Institute of Technology and the Magazine Association of the Southeast. Prior to serving as managing editor of American Shipper, Kim spent more than four years with XPO Logistics.