PARIS – The Dali container ship that caused the collapse of a key bridge in Baltimore was recently built and sails under Singapore’s flag.

It was constructed by the South Korean Hyundai shipyard in 2015 and is 300m long, 48m wide and 24.8m tall, with a gross tonnage of 95,000 tonnes, making it an average-sized container ship.

It left Baltimore port at 1am local time (1pm Singapore time) on March 26 for a roughly month-long voyage to Colombo in Sri Lanka, according to the site Marine Traffic. It hit the bridge at 1.28am.

The ship belongs to Singapore-based Grace Ocean, which is owned by a Hong Kong group, and was carrying containers on behalf of Danish shipping giant Maersk.

Synergy Marine, the Singapore company that operates the Dali, said it was being controlled by two Baltimore port pilots at the time of the crash.

There were 22 crew members on board, according to the Port of Singapore, and none were injured, according to Synergy, which also says no leaks have been detected.

The Dali frequently links Asian ports with the east coast of the United States, and passed through the Panama Canal on March 13 before stopping at New York, Norfolk in Virginia, and finally Baltimore.

In 2016, soon after its commissioning, the Dali accidentally hit a dock in the Belgian port of Antwerp, according to the sites VesselFinder and Shipwrecklog.

It can hold up to 8,344 cubic m of fuel, according to Marine Traffic. It is insured by the United Kingdom-based Britannia. AFP