Rejected by the Port of Xiamen, the MOL-operated containership MOL Presence has received permission to call at Hong Kong after passing the radiation level test conducted by Hong Kong authorities, according to the Shipping Gazette.

Sailing to California, the 6,350-TEU MOL Presence put into Tokyo for a few hours on March 17 and proceeded to Xiamen on the night of March 21.

The Chinese authorities refused to allow the ship to berth at Xiamen after detecting its higher-than-normal radiation level on March 21 and “recommended the ship be cleaned before it could offload cargo there”.

Since on-site inspection by a third party was not approved, the ship departed Xiamen on March 27 and had a second inspection by Nippon Kaiji Kentei Kokai off Kobe Port on March 30, which stated that “the detected radiation level was significantly lower than the level detected in Xiamen”, according to a MOL company statement.

The vessel thus departed for Hong Kong on April 1 and was allowed to berth there and undertake cargo operations after confirming radiation safety.

Separately, the Indian government has given a green light to the imports of Japanese foodstuffs after announcing a complete ban earlier, but it required “radiation free” certificates for all imported Japanese produce, reported London’s Containerisation International.

A number of countries, including China, Singapore, Australia and the US have banned Japanese produce imported from districts near the Fukushima nuclear plant, but India was the only country that banned all Japanese imported food.

source: shipping gazette.